November 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 58

NRPA Update

Member Spotlight: Shalon Lewis

n her role as Shreveport Public Assembly Recreation (SPAR) manager at Valencia Park in Shreveport, Louisiana, Shalon Lewis has a lot on her plate. She
makes sure youth and seniors in her community have access to a top-notch
facility packed with fun and interesting programming. She wrangles volunteers -
including her own mother - to work at the park's impressive community garden,
which yields piles of veggies during Louisiana's long growing season. During the
past nine years at Valencia, Lewis makes a daily effort to share her pride and infectious energy with the larger community, trumpeting her facility's amenities to
anyone willing to listen. We recently caught up with the 34-year-old to get a more
detailed sense of her deep commitment to the park and recreation profession.
Parks & Recreation Magazine: Tell
us about some of the programmatic highlights at Valencia Park.
Shalon Lewis: Hosting successful job
fairs; creating a Referral Center for
patrons to come and receive useful
information; conducting the largest
after-school program in SPAR where
we pride ourselves on education, teambuilding and respect for self and others; providing senior citizens a place to
come daily and relax, learn and participate in fun activities such as arts and
crafts and table games (a favorite of
our " Senior Valencia Golden Girls and
Boys " is Mexican Train Dominoes);
health and wellness seminars; and field
trips. We also award the youth in the
neighborhood with summer jobs in our
community youth garden - the first of
its kind in northern Louisiana.
P&R: Valencia Park's youth community garden is clearly a highlight
and point of pride for the park -
talk a bit about how that program
works and how the community is
involved.
Lewis: The garden is a wonderful
partnership between the LSU AgCenter and the City of Shreveport.
We teamed up with Dr. Grace Peterson from the LSU AgCenter to
do a nutrition program in 2008. Six

56 Parks & Recreation

years later, we now have a year-round
garden, berry bushes (10), a fruit orchard (12 trees), a herb garden and a
flower bed. The youth are the main
ones who are involved [in the maintenance of the garden]. They learn
responsibility, ownership, teamwork,
how to eat healthier and to have pride
for themselves and their community.
P&R: What sort of fruits and veggies do you grow in the garden, and
which are your favorite?
Lewis: Our garden is year-round, so
we grow a variety of fruits and vegetables that thrive in Louisiana's warm
climate - figs, watermelon, tomato,
spinach, okra, lettuce, kale, broccoli,
pepper, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and
eggplants, just to name a handful. My
favorites are everything we grow, but if
I had to pick a few it would be the broccoli, sweet potatoes and cucumbers,
and I love to see the sunflowers bloom.
P&R: We understand you're great
with volunteers, even enlisting your mom to help out in the
garden. How did you convince
her to become involved?
Lewis: I have a saying at Valencia:
Once you come to visit, you will want
to come back. The volunteers are great!
They come and help because they

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want to be there; they love to see the
smiles on the kids' faces, and the fact
that they love gardening plays a big role
too. My mother Belinda (Coley) Lewis
is the biggest supporter of the garden
- day in and day out, she is there. For
Mother's Day this year, she didn't want
to go out to eat or anything like that -
she wanted all her kids (eight of us and
many grandkids) to meet at the garden
to work, so we did. I think she was happier about starting a garden than I was.
Growing up, she would always say, " I
want a house with a big backyard so I
can start a garden. " Well, she has her
garden now and I am proud to know I
was able to give her that.
P&R: What's the most rewarding
aspect of your job at Valencia Park?
Lewis: Giving back to the community, especially the youth.
P&R: What advice would you give
to other park and recreation professionals?
Lewis: We can and we are making
a difference in the lives of others.
Thank and appreciate your staff and
volunteers. You are only as good as
the people who work with you.
- Samantha Bartram, Associate Editor
of Parks & Recreation Magazine

November 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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