The City on Inclusive Recreation Options

This >contributor opinion was written by the City’s Recreation and Parks director, Burt Hall:

The Rockville community is fortunate to have this perspective on our parks, facilities and programs from Dr. Reeve Brenner. As the inventor and marketer of “Bankshot Basketball” and other “total mix” sports equipment, Dr. Brenner, a native son, has contributed greatly to the recreational opportunities for different segments of the able-bodied and “differently-abled” populations. I am proud to say that the City offers the opportunity to play Bankshot Basketball at our court located at Welsh Park and will soon have a full-sized Bankshot court at our new park in the King Farm neighborhood, Mattie J.T. Stepanek Park. These courts truly provide the kind of inclusive opportunity for residents of all abilities to participate together that Dr. Brenner describes.

There are many other opportunities at Rockville’s parks and facilities for inclusive participation by all. One of the best examples is the Rockville Municipal Swim Center, which is totally accessible and available to people of all abilities for drop-in use 363 days each year. The Swim Center has a widely varied clientele, many of whom have disabilities, or are recovering from recent medical procedures. They use the five pools, the whirlpool, the fitness centers on an equal basis. Even the recently installed “Sprayground” was designed specifically to accommodate play by the able-bodied and those with disabilities.

Another facility that welcomes people of all abilities is our Senior Center. Members, regardless of ability, visit the Center throughout each week. They take advantage of drop-in activities such as the Fitness Room, enjoy a snack or lunch in the dining room, read a book or newspaper in the library, watch a movie, use the woodshop and ceramic room, play cards, use the computer center and receive assistance from the nurse or wellness coordinator. Many of these members and visitors use walkers, canes, wheelchairs, as well as visual and hearing aides.

Similar opportunities are available at our recreation centers such as Twinbrook, Lincoln Park and the Croydon Creek Nature Center. At Lincoln Park we have three organizations that cater to special populations who use the center each month. These include the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC of Montgomery County), the Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children (CSAAC) and the Supported Employment Enterprise Corporation (SEEC). Participants from these organizations enjoy activities in the gym such as basketball, kickball, dodge ball, etc.; they use the game room and the computer center as well. SEEC brings in a personal trainer two times per week who works with the group in the fitness room. At Twinbrook Community Recreation Center, residents with physical and mental disabilities are regular drop-in participants, making use of the gym, the fitness center and the computer center. Several children with disabilities are currently registered in our after school program.

When we build new facilities, such as the Dog Park at Stepanek Park, we make sure to include accessible features such as asphalt pathways, so that persons in a wheelchair or who have ambulatory disabilities are fully able to enjoy the park with their dogs.

In our programs, the City has a policy of providing inclusive opportunities for people of all abilities. We ask persons with disabilities who may need assistance to fully take advantage of a class or program to notify our staff so appropriate accommodations can be made. Each year there are hundreds of “differently-abled” children and adults who benefit from these many programs side-by-side with abled-bodied participants. We have participants with different types of mental and physical disabilities who play in our youth sports programs each year, including basketball, football, t-ball, baseball, track and field and soccer.

Each year fifteen to thirty young men and women with physical or mental disabilities participate in our fall 5K road race. The January 2008 issue of the Town Courier newspaper included a nice article about one of these individuals. In fact, Rockville’s entire Special Events program, including Hometown Holidays, July 4th, the Car Show, and others, presents regular opportunities for our residents of all abilities to come together for these community celebrations.

In closing, we understand that we can always improve our facilities to make them more welcoming and more usable by Rockville residents of all abilities. We appreciate the challenges in this arena articulated by Dr. Brenner and pledge to continue to work closely with all interested community members to make Rockville’s parks, recreation facilities and programs even more inclusive and welcoming to all.

Burt Hall
Director of Recreation and Parks
City of Rockville

Rockville Central runs occasional, edited opinion pieces by contributors. Their views are not necessarily those of Rockville Central. To submit your opinion for consideration, contact us.

Contributor Opinion by Reeve Brenner: Our Parks And The Differently-Abled

>The following contributor opinion is by Dr. Reeve Brenner, President of the National Association for Recreational Equality. Dr. Brenner will appear this week on Montgomery Municipal Channel (Ch. 16) during the “Municipal Notebook” show, discussing Mattie J.T. Stepanek Park. (Thursday at 7:30 pm and Friday-Sunday at 10pm):

• It is good there are programs (scheduled activities) for the different segments of the able-bodied and disabled populations.
• Where are the recreational/sports drop-in facilities in our parks and recreation centers for the differently abled – facilities that are inclusive so that everyone can participate together?
• Why are there no inclusive facilities – without cost! – for wheel-chair users, children with MS, Muscular dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, Cystic Fibrosis, autistic children, Down syndrome, developmentally different and other differently-abled children and adults?
• There are many no-cost facilities outdoors for all others. Why not for the differently able?
• Why only scheduled programs for these special populations?
• Other children do not need supervised activities at a rec center or at ball fields to make use of public facilities, why do they?

Why are there playgrounds for young children, play fields for athletes and older children and no Playcourts for post kindergarten ages? Playgrounds are provided without requiring membership costs. But developmentally challenged and differently able school age children, young teens and adults are ignored. They by contrast are offered no outdoor or indoor “Inclusive” facilities for ball playing. Able individuals by contrast are provided with many courts such as basketball – and tennis in abundance. Why?

Why do we continue to build recreation centers like Twinbrook, in our own community, with ball-playing facilities – which receives our largest budget and land use -for everyone able-bodied but nothing for special populations (and for mixed and diverse families), and no drop in facilities for wheel-chair users, the autistic and the developmentally dissimilar and other differently-abled youth? Why do special populations continue to be overlooked in our recreation centers and parks? Able-bodied individuals and elite athletes do not have to wait for a scheduled program. They drop in. And play ball. Why do the differently-abled still not have similar drop in ball fields and facilities available without cost, without staff and adult supervision as do all other youngsters, children and adults?

Why do communities offer first, and often only, exclusionary, fast-moving tennis and basketball facilities, speed and strength-dependent sports that exclude seniors and the differently-abled? Why are basketball courts (ten courts) and tennis courts (two) constructed in the Twinbrook rec center at huge costs and not one facility for differently-abled children who would also like to play ball as drop-ins without expense but cannot play tennis and basketball as drop-ins.

Should we not be raising consciousness and awareness for the recreational needs of the entire community?

Is it a right-thinking policy of a community that disabled children and adults have no drop in facilities? Why do they have to depend on prearranged and supervised programs as others do not? All others have tennis and basketball courts in abundance and baseball, soccer and football fields and the like – all running fast-moving facilities. These facilities do not lend themselves to drop in play by wheelchair users and non-athletes who also wish to recreate by playing ball. The special populations also wish to drop-in whenever they would like and also have an opportunity to play ball alongside and with their family and friends. They cannot in parks of Rockville – and Montgomery County, MD.

Rockville Central runs occasional, edited opinion pieces by contributors. Their views are not necessarily those of Rockville Central. To submit your opinion for consideration, contact us.