Swimming lessons, sports leagues, art classes, field trips, cooking, dancing, workouts … it’s all in the next round of registration for Seattle Parks facilities, starting today. If you haven’t browsed the all-in-one brochure for our area’s five city-run community centers, one Teen Life Center, and Southwest Pool, where it’s all listed – you’ll find it here. And if you think it’s all kid stuff, wrong! All ages, up to “lifelong.”
Southwest Seattle and all of our community centers need help with funds for programs.
The most recent catalogue for seniors’ programs indicate how grossly underfunded those programs are for most communities. If one takes the time to actually compare the fitness programs (not cooking, not bridge, not field trips) but FITNESS and tallies where and what is available it is obvious.
One opportunity in once a week for four weeks only in one SW area community center is not optimal for most seniors or other adults to provide fitness. Folks are completely on their own in many communities. There are similar gaps in available opportunities from one community center to another around the city.
The reason for those gaps is that programs are not funded by Parks at all. Active-fund raising by community centers volunteers provide most programs. All centers senior programs (and maybe some others, I am not certain) are dependent upon funds raised by local neighborhood groups to supplant the traditional dearth of funds.
If I could do it myself, I would, but I do not really possess the skill set to fund raise, nor can I afford the time to learn and initiate an effort to change the status of program funding here and elsewhere in the city community centers.
I hope that there are folks out there with those skills to help out the community center councils to raise funds to give the good and hardworking folks of this city the opportunity to improve their fitness. This would be a more well-rounded city if not only our trees are saved, but our seniors and adults have robustly funded programs.
Is anybody out there to address this?
Contact your local Community Center Advisory Council. The phone numbers are online and easy to find for any community center.
Thanks.
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