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Recreation
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City of Roswell
P.O. Drawer 1838
Roswell, NM 88202-1838
(505) 624-6700
Fax: 624-6889 |
THE LEISURE INCIDENT
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
"The Real Problem With Tragedies"
July 15, 2025
By Kim Elliott, CLP
Recreation Director
City of Roswell
An opinion article that appeared recently in the Dallas Morning News by Dr. Peter Witt
of Texas A&M, gave us some food for thought. He gave us a possible reason for the
Columbine High School tragedy and possibly some of the others that have occurred. His
rationale gave us reason to believe that more of this type of tragedy will happen in the
future.
Why? It has to do with the provision for the leisure incident in our communities. Dr.
Witt gave us a different perspective to ponder.
In a nutshell, he said that the problem with our youth in general might be the result
of a lack of qualified park and recreation professionals. More specifically, the lack of a
living salary for park and recreation professionals, especially at the entry level
positions. He said that even though there is no lack of people who desire to enter the
field, the pay is so low that individuals can not make a living doing what is important.
They take jobs in other professions just to make a living!
What is important?
What is important is working with kids! What is important is working with families!
What is important is being available to act as a surrogate mother or father! What is
important is to be involved with the building up of the family! What is important is
having qualified and trained staff to be able to do these things!
Listen to what Melanie Inglefield who works at Grant Ranch Village Center, Littleton,
CO says in an email to other park and recreation professionals across this nation. She is
speaking of who these kids were that were victimized at Columbine High School.
"…It all seems so surreal….these are ''my kids"…the one's who
used my pool, or came to the teen parties…their parents are my patrons, my friends,
and part of the life I have created for myself."(4/20/1999 - NRPANET
Listserve)
Park and recreation professionals take pride in the community. They live and work in
the community. They have friends in the community. They give of themselves to a community.
That can be seen very clearly in Melanie's comments.
Sometimes our communities do not give back!
The real problem is that the community has the perception that anyone can be a park and
recreation professional. Park and Recreation people are some of the most highly trained
individuals in an organization. Just because these professionals have fun and enjoy what
they are doing, the community has the perception that they should all be paid minimum wage
salaries. As a result, "good" park and recreation people are forced into other
fields because of a perception that, in most cases is not accurate.
We begin the training process for our front line people who deal with the public, and
because they can not make a living doing what they want to do, are forced into other
professions. This is not right when Parks and Recreation benefits the entire community,
either directly or indirectly.
Roswell Recreation directly impacted over 38,000 individuals during 1998. The other
10,000 individuals in the Roswell community probably walked in one of our parks, traveled
the Spring River Parkway, visited the Spring River Zoo or played golf at the Spring River
Golf Course? At the very least they benefited because their neighbor did!
There are many reasons for the tragedies around this nation of ours. Some have more
merit than others. Dr. Peter Witt may be on to something! It might be worth looking into
further.
Parks and Recreation - The Benefits are Endless...TM
