9 minute read
Recreation
Summer program partnership with Springfield Public Schools
Keeping kids active and engaged all summer long is an essential role of a park and recreation agency. Thanks to Springfield Public Schools, summer programs were more accessible to kids in Springfield. For the second year, students could attend Willamalane summer camps, youth sports camps, swim lessons, science, technology, engineering, and math classes, and other summer programs at no cost, thanks to the school district’s grant funds. Willamalane offered 125 camps over the summer and 728 students participated at no cost.
The 1PASS program is a family favorite for summer activities. Kids can use a single pass with a one-time fee to access more than 15 different healthy and fun activities in Springfield and Eugene all summer long. Since the 1PASS was designed to offer healthy and educational activities, every Springfield Public School student was also eligible to receive a 1PASS, paid in full by grant funds. Willamalane also received support from the Willamalane Park Foundation and International Paper to fund additional scholarships for children who lived within Willamalane’s district boundaries but were not students at Springfield Public Schools.
Thanks to this support, in 2022 more Springfield kids than ever before received a 1PASS. In total, 4,988 passes were sold in Springfield, and those passes were used 50,735 times across all destinations.
Children in Willamalane summer camps enjoyed a foam party at Bob Keefer Center.
Willamalane Childcare Programs
As the 2022-23 school year approached, many Willamalane childcare programs were limited or unavailable due to staffing challenges. This meant limiting the number of preschool and Kids Club programs until there were enough qualified employees to run them. To combat these limited offerings, Willamalane embarked on a mission to recruit and hire as many people as possible who are both qualified and passionate about working with children. These efforts included offering hiring and retention incentives for staff and revising many hiring processes to move qualified applicants through the hiring process as quickly as possible. So far, those efforts have been effective. In the first few months of the school year, Willamalane doubled the number of Kids Club sites, with six of the 11 schools having programs in place. In Willamalane’s preschool programs, an influx of new teachers allowed Willamalane to offer four different preschool programs for the community, including part-time and full-time options. Looking forward, Willamalane set a goal to open Kids Club at all Springfield elementary schools this year. After the district meets this milestone, Willamalane will look to open Early Start at as many elementary schools as possible. All elementary schools without Kids Club have interest lists available. You can sign your child up on a list at willamalane.org/KidsClub. New sites will open based on the number of students signed up on the interest list and the number of hired and trained staff.
Willamalane is committed to running childcare programs to serve as many families as possible, and we will continue recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining staff to meet your needs. We are currently offering a $500 hiring incentive for new staff, plus additional incentives for hours worked. If you know anyone interested in working with youth care programs, please visit willamalane.org/careers.
Willamalane offers recreation, sports, and fitness programs for community members of all ages and abilities. In 2022, you may have attended a lecture or took a guided snowshoe hike through the moonlight. Maybe you tried a wellness workshop or took a new fitness class. Or, maybe your kids took swim lessons or tried a new sport. Willamalane’s recreation programs are growing quickly and cover a huge variety of ages, interests, and activities. While the pandemic increased the popularity of parks and outdoor activities, Willamalane continues to see considerable demand for outdoor recreation opportunities. This summer, Camp Putt hosted 6,000 more visitors than in 2021! The district has also increased its offering of guided outdoor trips and hikes, skillbased clinics to prepare you for your adventures, and increased inventories of outdoor gear rentals for anyone interested in charting their own adventures. Willamalane’s youth athletic programs get youth involved in team sports through special programs at Springfield Public Schools sites. Willamalane also created new camps for youth to explore emerging sports, like disc golf and pickleball. Thanks to a grant, Willamalane offered free pickleball clinics for youth over the summer, and nearly 100 kids participated in these clinics. Grant funding is also paving the way for improvements to existing outdoor pickleball courts. It’s not just kids who are eager for more programs and to get active! Adult recreation classes and program offerings have also nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022. Willamalane’s fitness classes are seeing more participants than ever, with classes now offered six days a week and in the evenings. Willamalane programs and classes are working to best meet your needs and are changing based on community feedback and attendance numbers.
Kids practice their aim at Willamalane’s first disc golf camp, held at Clearwater Park.
Not unlike pools across the nation, recruiting staff for aquatics has been an immense challenge. These positions are essential to safely operate Splash! and Willamalane Park Swim Center.
High school and college students make up a huge percentage of lifeguards and swim instructors. They need jobs fast, but getting hired as a lifeguard takes time and certifications. The aquatics team realized traditional hiring methods weren’t cutting it, so they re-imagined the hiring process. Previously, lifeguards and swim instructors needed to complete and pay for a certification course prior to being hired, which could be reimbursed upon employment. Under the new hiring model, an applicant can come to a hiring event, learn about the position, have a casual interview, and receive a job offer in two hours. All job offers are contingent on passing background checks and other eligibility requirements. Once hired, the new employees undergo lifeguard and safety training on paid time. The district pays for all certification costs. Additionally, thanks to funding from the City of Springfield’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation, the district created a hiring and retention program that helped recruit and retain staff.
Despite staffing challenges, demand for pool programming hasn’t diminished. At the pools, Willamalane has seen increases in interest in water fitness classes and general visits. While staffing challenges required extended closures at Splash! during the spring, Willamalane still offered key programs throughout the year. Swim lessons have seen an unprecedented rise in demand, too. Swim lesson offerings have increased by more than 300% from 2021 to 2022 and are currently at an all-time high for program offerings. Swim lessons are crucial to swim safety success, and Willamalane will continue hiring staff to meet the demands of our community.
FOURTH GRADE SWIM LESSONS For more than 60 years, Willamalane has partnered with Springfield Public School to offer free swim lessons to all fourth grade students. This program is part of regular curriculum during the school day, making it easy for students to participate. The school district provides the transportation to bring students to and from the class. Like most programs, the program paused in March of 2020. Finally, in the spring of 2022, free fourth grade swim lessons were back! Students who missed the program between 2020 and 2022 could enroll in free lessons with Willamalane. There were 152 students who participated! In the 2022-23 school year, fourth grade swim lessons returned as part of regular curriculum thanks to partnerships from PeaceHealth and Springfield Public Schools.
Water exercise class at Willamalane Park Swim Center. Under the new hiring model, an applicant can come to a hiring event, learn about the position, have a casual interview, and receive a job offer in two hours.
MEGGA Hunt at Lively Park
Special Events in 2022
In 2022, all of Willamalane’s special events were back in person. It was so good to see your smiling faces! After a two-year hiatus, MEGGA Hunt returned to Lively Park, offering an in-person group egg hunt for 670 kids and more than 1,500 attendees. For families looking for more intimate settings popular in the pandemic, Willamalane also offered private family lots and backyard kits. In June, Children’s Celebration offered more than 40 family-favorite attractions, including games, balloon animals, and big trucks. With the addition of a PetFest section at Children’s Celebration, attendees explored fun for all family members, whether they have two legs, four legs, fins, or scales. While the weather was very wet, that didn’t stop the community from showing up! More than 1,200 community members braved the torrential downpours and donated more than 2,000 pounds of non-perishable food donations (including pet food).
Sounds like Summer returned for a five-part concert series in June and July at Island Park. Attendees could enjoy local music performances, browse an art show and handcrafted artisan goods, and grab a bite to eat. Candy Apple Bleu headlined the most prominent summer concert during the Oregon22 World Championships, with support from Team Springfield. Son De Cuba attracted large crowds, too, as they filled the park with modern and classic Latin American songs. Sounds like Summer set a new record for attendance, with 2,824 people at the five concerts! October is one of the busiest and most festive times at the Willamalane, with four special events to celebrate the spooky season. After two years of modified offerings, Haunted Hayride and Halloween Carnival were back to their pre-pandemic setups. Haunted Hayride was a three-night extravaganza and sold 1,800 tickets. Ghostly Golf filled each of the 210 slots over the seven nights of glow-in-the-dark magic at Camp Putt, and none were canceled due to wet weather! Halloween Carnival moved indoors to Bob Keefer Center and saw a record-breaking attendance of 1,778 community members, far exceeding any year prior. Haunted Lagoon moved from Splash! to Willamalane Park Swim Center as over 750 community members took a swim with goblins, ghosts, and spooky sea creatures. Thank you for making Willamalane the best place for Halloween fun! Springfield had one heck of a Turkey Stuffer 5K, too. With more than 1,200 participants and not a single drop of rain, it was a fantastic way to kick off Thanksgiving. Thanks to everyone who decided to crush their 5K before turkey-ing!
Haunted Hayride at Dorris Ranch Sounds Like Summer Concert Series at Island Park
Ghostly Golf at Camp Putt Adventure Golf Park
