I had a big
idea. My town is moderately close to an
urban area, but is distinctly rural, and nearly 1/5th of the
population here lives under the poverty line. (2012 US Census) Our children are mostly stuck at home because there really is not
anything to do. In order to get to
social events, they need to go an average of twelve miles, one way, to the
city. I believe that if our town had a
recreation center for them, they could get out, and get moving more. I would love to have a place for them to go
to get off the video games, and computers to learn things that relate more
closely to everyday life when they are grown.
A place for them to do activities that they, and the rest of the
community, find fun, and appropriate.
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| Harvest Festival at the elementary school |
A quick,
unofficial survey of my kids, their friends, and their friends’ friends, tells
me that the boys, and even some of the girls, would like to build a parkour
(free running) course. Leggo league, and
a robotics club have also been bandied about.
I was hoping for a cooking course, a garden, and things like teaching
them how to manage savings, write resumes, and even clean. No one can say it is not important for kids to
learn responsibility, and learning to take care of themselves is the first
step.
In order to get
this project started, I would need to attend a town meeting and bring it up
there. First though, I would like to
find parents to come to our own meeting, to go over what they would like to
happen. It would not make much sense to
ask the town to consider it, if no one was going to use it. I have a small circle of parents that I know,
and they are all for it, but I think most of the parents, if not all, should
have input on the project. It’s
important that we get as much information as we can as to what the parents want
to see their kids doing, and what the kids want to do, and then what we, as a
community, can afford.
Having a center in our own town would mean
that no one would have more than an average of 6 miles to drive, with the
option to return home while the kids are at play, rather than trying to find
something to do downtown .(Google) It is safer to
drive slower, on our roads rather than the main highways, reducing the chances
of getting into an accident due to wildlife.
What I hope for is that we can get a lot of donations, and grants to
help us. I want this place to be as
close to free as we can get it. Maybe we
could even run it on a sliding scale basis.
How great would that be?
http://www.census.gov/censusexplorer/censusexplorer.html
google.com/search Enfield
http://www.census.gov/censusexplorer/censusexplorer.html
google.com/search Enfield
