Page 199 - Demo

M YRecreationEach year the name seems to change. Call it the %u201cGroup Work Program,%u201d or %u201cThe Thursday/Friday Night Activity Program, or PRY Recreation.%u201d But it always boils down to the same things: young children participating in fun activities, such as arts and crafts, dodgeball, Halloween parties, ice skating, tug-of-war and taking trips to Wagner College for a football game or circus.Usually around the end of August or beginning of September the children begin asking %u201c WILL JOANNA BE MY COUNSELOR THIS YEAR, When does PRY begin?%u201d %u201c Hey, lets go skating indoors this year, it was too cold last year.%u201d And so the PRY Recreation Director, usually a graduate Student Coordinator and by early October the plans are laid and the program is fueled up and off and running.For ten years now, students from Wagner College and Community adults and Volunteers have provided this opportunity to youth. It was the first PRY program and continues to go strong.Since that time a boys Basketball league, cosponsored by Camp Friendship and Slope Sports was started. Stiff competition, active play, a team building opportunity - that%u2019s the PRY league.This fall a Girl%u2019s Recreation component will be added to PRY%u2019s fall to spring schedule. The fun and success of the summer activities will be integrated into the year round plans.It%u2019s basic regular and dependable year after year. A recreation opportunity for children%u2014at PRY!M Y SummerPregramFor five summers, PRY has provided exciting and varied opportunities for youth. Each year, as the programs arereviewed, additions, new creations, and expansions have been implemented. Beginning with a small day camp in 1974, which served about 70 children, the %u201978 summer program offers Softball to boys and girls, a Trips Program, Day Camp, Girl%u2019s Recreation and Handball, Career Counseling and Leadership Development%u2014reaching nearly 300 youth. Something new each year, plus the continuity of prior year%u2019s success%u2014That%u2019s the PRY SUMMER.DAY CAMP%u2014Ah, the old cornerstone, the remnant, which continues today. PRY%u2019s first summer service was the camp, serving children of elementary age with arts and crafts, games, swimming opportunities in pools and at beaches, sometimes drama, exposure to various sports, plus trips to cultural and city sites. Of late, the program offers a %u201c SEE THE CITY%u2014TRIPS PROGRAM%u201d for Sth and 6th graders. These youths take off daily, to see, explore, learn...from the Staten Island ferry to the Brooklyn Museum, from Prospect Park a few blocks over%u2014to the Bronx Zoo, a few boroughs over. For children looking for a chance to be active, a chance to check out their city, a chance to just be kids in the hot summer...how about a good ol%u2019 traditional day camp?BOYS SOFTBALL LEAGUE%u2014Everyone likes to be part of a team effort, to develop his/her recreational abilities, especially in a well supervised, organized way....such as a league. And for junior high age fellas who enjoy using bats and balls, that means the PRY/Slope Sports Softball League. For three years running, this league has offered such an opportunity. Eight teams participate this summer, enabling around 100 guys to play, dream of playoffs and trophies, something to look forward to week by week amid a long summer.The teams play on concrete in J.J. Byrne Park in Park Slope and on dirt, in Prospect Park. The schedule includes exhibition games, a regular season, playoffs and the championship. And yes, the Most Valuable Player, Honors Night, an All-Star Game, Trophies for 1st and 2nd place teams and Bus trips are included in the benefit? of participation (a great opportunity for fun sharing and community spirit).M Y 0 M sThis year they are called the PRY Park Slope Sluggers. They are a hearty, exciting bunch of girls who have been having fun playing and learning skills in softball. Normally, softball has been a guy's game. And in PRY, that has been also true, for in the past few years, more than one hundred boys have been playing in the PRY/Slope Sports Softball League ....for BOYS. The Sluggers...are all girls. And they are filled with fiber, energy, and a willingness to take on any team in town.PRY is realizing that active, recreational sports have rarely been offered in a constructive, helpful way to girls and women. Basketball, baseball, handball, etc., have traditionally been arenas for male competition. But things are changing in PRY. This summer PRY is providing its second year of programming, with the Girls Recreation and Activity Program and our 2nd Annual Girls Doubles Handball Tournament. The Recreation and Activity Program is a combination of trips, park games, karate classes, movement and crafts. More than 30 young women are participating. The handball competition brings together the nest in the Slope. A full, tiring day that requires skill and endurance leads to the handing out of trophies to the 1st and 2nd place teams.In the fall of 1978 PRY will continue its emphasis and will provide a Girl%u2019s Recreation Evening. It should be exciting. For we are realizing, in our very midst there really are girls, girls, and more girls....and they are active at PRY.LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: Itmight be said that our summer program is only as good as the high school, college, and graduate students that staff the programs. Well, there are several ingredients in the %u2018good summer program%u2019 recipe. And surely, having a well prepared, enthusiastic staff is of prime importance.More than thirty-five students work in PRY each summer as counselors, directors, office aides, coaches, and umpires. All workers, including thepermanent, fulltime staff, are viewed as persons amid a growth process, with a chance to improve, to develop skills, to mature. So PRY takes seriously the role of each staff person. A June weekend retreat to some out-of-the-city setting is required of all workers. It gives everyone the chance to develop friendships, to ease into a new work environment, to begin to discuss job descriptions.and staff needs. There is a full week of orientation prior to camp and league activities. So when the kids come, PRY%u2019s ready.The work experience is taken seriously. Punctually, attitude, peer respect, completion of a task and responsibilities, initiative, relationships to children and /ellow workers are live issues that are dealt with in seminars, planning sessions, and one-to-one sessions between worker and director. PRY realizes that these young adults are the leadership fabric for this community in years to come. It also realizes that the real job world is not as open to developing good work values and habits. They are expected upon arrival. And so, helping to mold these values early is part of an overall career development component of the PRY program.The PRY Career Center takes primary responsibility for orchestrating this leadership piece in the summer program. Jack Uhrich and his staff have worked year after year to refine objectives, improve standards and become a demonstration site for the development of work skills and youth employment supervision.The work is not easy. The fruit is not necessarily visible. But the task is vital....to a fun, creative summer for so many youth, to these youth%u2014who sense their improvement and growth, and to the Brooklyn community which will eventually inherit the harvest.Joint AgencyS u p p o r tOne of the keys to PRY success in reaching out to youth is directly related to support and cooperation of the other youth serving programs in the area. Working alone PRY would be unable to sponsor and coordinate many of its opportunities for youth Development Services and Slope Sports.One of CYDS mandated purposes is to assist in the facilitation of youth activitiesAugust 24,1978, TH E PHOENIX, Page 13