January 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 53

Pennsylvania, that Bob Mercer oversees, the programs are actually growing thanks to the Friends of
Silver Lake. " Growth has not been on the county side
here-it's been on the Friends side, " he says. The
volunteer group currently supplies 50 percent of the
nature center's budget-and that amount is growing.
" Thanks to their commitment, we are expanding our
education and our outreach. "
Close working relationships between park
and recreation agencies and local citizen volunteers ensure parks address the needs and interests of the public. Nowhere are the benefits of
public-private partnership more dramatic than in
Jane Hodgkinson's field of special recreation. Since
the inception of Illinois's state-funded Western DuPage Special Recreation Association, families of the
mentally and physically disabled participants have
come out on a daily basis to help plan and run the
programs that serve their loved ones. In the process
of serving together, the teams of volunteers get to
see firsthand the benefits of the existing programs.
But appreciation is only a starting point for the networking and innovation that grow out of those working relationships.
The San Francisco Parks Trust began to see the
results of this sort of day-in, day-out interdependence

after outfitting the city's 11 new bond-funded recreation centers with furnishings and special equipment. A successful major fundraising effort created
a trust and an ease of communication that led to the
formation of a special discretionary fund to supply
small but crucial items. The friends groups get the
satisfaction of seeing their facilities safe and well outfitted-and park staffs are encouraged to continue
communicating their day-to-day plans and needs to
the citizens they serve.
Mark Thornton, parks and recreation director
for Hillsborough County in the Tampa area of Florida, leads a department that is now operating on less
than 75 percent of its 2007 budget-maintaining 46
sites with a staff of six people. In Hillsborough's budget heyday between 2002 and 2006, the agency provided such services as a free, daily after-school care
program for county residents. But now the after-school
program has become the province of the school system, and Thornton's staff struggles merely to maintain
park facilities. Thornton summarizes his agency's current situation: " We're going to have to look at a new
model of how we provide services....where we are
more a facilitator than a provider. " Thornton, like many
others in his position, sees only one logical conclusion:
" We must become a public-private partnership. " 

We're going
to have to
look at a new
model of how
we provide
services,
where we
are more a
facilitator than
a provider. We
must become a
public-private
partnership.
-Mark Thornton,
Director
Parks and
Recreation,
Hillsborough
County,
Florida

Friends of Huntley Meadows Park
Fairfax County, Virginia
President: Kathi McNeil
Year founded: 1985
Number of members: 400
Primary focus: Protection of a wetland
wildlife sanctuary
Funded by: Member dues
another example of the natural, common-sense collaboration between park and volunteers. In its efforts
to protect and preserve a unique habitat, the Friends
of Huntley Meadows Park make it possible to teach
future generations about the biodiversity of marshes
and meadows.
The truest test then of a park group committed to
teaching children is whether those children return to
the park as adults. Not only do those who grew up enjoying the park now bring their own children to visit
the wetlands, but many now serve as members of the
Friends of Huntley Meadows Park.


www.NRPA .ORG

JANUARY 2011

Parks & Recreation

January 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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