Remaining relevant - NRPA: Perspectives - National Recreation and Park Association, role of parks in society - Brief Article

After the initial range of emotions -- shock, grief, anger, cold determination -- resulting from the terrorists attacks of September 11, I have felt it necessary to assess the relevance of NRPA's mission to our society in these tense times. Not that I had any doubts, but I knew that others would question whether recreation had a place in our priorities while the crisis persists. Already some public officials have seen fit to cut the budgets of some park and recreation agencies, perhaps due to the general downturn of the economy, but sped up by the heightened concern for internal security and the resultant re-allocation of funds to beef up police, fire and first aid.

I went back to the issues of Recreation Magazine published during the war years of 1941-45 to see what our predecessors had said and done to remain relevant during this greatest crisis of the 20th century. What I found was reassuring. In July, 1942 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote to the leaders of the National Recreation Association, with these words, "The inventive genius and organizing power of our people gave us the economic freedom that made possible the wide-spread development of recreation for all the people. Now that we are at war we are fortunate in having this rich resource of recreation to give us physical, mental and spiritual power for the titanic task at hand.... I rejoice in the fact that the strength of the recreation movement in America stems from a deep feeling of community responsibility.... As a long-time member and supporter of the National Recreation Association, I am happy in the thought of the significant was recreation service being rendered through this great cooperative effort."

Physical, mental and spiritual power to cope with the task at hand -- that's what parks are for -- and today, we still get that feeling of community responsibility about parks and recreation.

While suppressing international terrorism is not a conflict of the same scale as World War II, the threat of more attacks on civilians on US soil is perhaps greater, producing stress and tension, and has a negative impact on our economy, especially on tourism and away-from-home recreation. However, then as now, the role of recreation and parks in our society remains essential. In the weeks after the destruction of the World Trade Center and the damage to the Pentagon, and even with the rise in anthrax attacks, visitation to parks has soared. People has not cowered in their homes, but have gathered in public spaces, especially in public parks, to be together, to reduce their stress, to show the spirit of community solidarity. Parks are where community happens.

At the General Session during the NRPA Congress in Denver, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced that the national parks would be free to visitors over Veterans Day weekend, November 10-11, and challenged the NRPA membership to take extraordinary steps to bring hundreds of thousands of Americans together in their public parks over that weekend, as a demonstration of "national unity, hope and healing." NRPA's Board of Trustees passed a resolution of support for this challenge at its meeting on October 7. We urge all of our member agencies to join together on November 10 and 11, through whatever means is appropriate in their community, to encourage people to visit the parks and each other, on that symbolic weekend.

National polling data, compiled for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, before and since September 11, strongly corroborates the sense that we already had that people need recreation and their parks now more than ever. It's a well-known fact of physiology that physical activity relieves stress, and so does being with friends and family. So let's double our relief by gathering with friends and family in the park of your choice Veterans Day weekend, November 10-11.

T. Destry Jarvis
Executive Director

COPYRIGHT 2001 National Recreation and Park Association
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group