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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
"Renewing
the Spirit"
December 10 , 2001
Mr. Kim Elliott, CPRP
Recreation Director
City of Roswell, NM
As we come into a new year we
realize just how important the Leisure Incident is and can be! T. Destry
Jarvis, Executive Director of the National Recreation and Park Association
reminds us of this importance as quoted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
in July 1942.
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… (Parks and
Recreation Magazine, November 2001)
Our nation was
at war when the President made this statement! Our nation is currently in a war
and the truths are still evident!
An example of the
importance of the leisure incident can be found in the aftermath of the bombing
of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK on April 19,
1995. It has been documented that participating in recreational activities and
spending time with families reduces stress and has a healing affect on the
person. This can be very clearly seen in the year that followed this national
tragedy.
What do you do
with the families of 168 people who were killed and 600 who were injured in a
terrorist attack? You move forward and develop a healing process to help the
victims and survivors get through the stress and pain of the disaster. In the
case of the Oklahoma City bombing, the National Endowment for the Arts stepped
in to help and became the catalyst for others to also help ease the pain.
The healing
process developed used well established recreational activities as therapy.
These activities involved music, creative writing, poetry, memory box sculpture,
painting, maskmaking and basket weaving as therapy. All of these recreational
activities were taking place in a setting that promoted social activities for
friends and families and helped to create the opportunity to make new friends
with similar interests and problems. Even the Oklahoma Philharmonic Orchestra
was utilized to perform at memorial services.
Jackie Jones,
Executive Director of the Arts Council of Oklahoma said, "What we learned
after the bombing was that the arts were essential for people to express what
they were feeling, especially when they didn't have the words." ("Designing
Renewal--Oklahoma City Rebuilds", Karen R. Nelson, NEA website) This is not a
new concept! Everyone knows this.
Especially in
times of war, the spirit needs to be renewed. It is the rich resources of
recreation that gives us the physical, mental and spiritual power to see us
through tough times as President Roosevelt said.
The healing
process begun in Oklahoma City could very well be the same or similar process
needed in New York, Washington, DC, and in many other communities around this
great nation of ours.
Why? Because the
benefits of parks and recreation are endless!
Discover
the Benefits of Parks and Recreation! It can help!
