Celebrating the Holidays with Rec and Park!

 81st Annual Tree Lighting

The holiday season has officially begun! On Thursday, December 9, Rec and Park hosted its 81st annual holiday tree lighting, and this year's event was, without a doubt, one of our best.

A few hundred of our closest friends joined us for an evening of entertainment, family fun and pure holiday spirit.  Local musician Ashkon performed his SF Giants hit, "Don't Stop Believin'" and a number of furry creatures joined the party, including Lou Seal, Santa Claude, the albino alligator from the Academy of Sciences, and of course, Santa Claus.

Eighty-one years ago, “Uncle” John Mclaren, our first park superintendent, started a tradition of lighting a mile-long stretch along

Fell Street

and ending here with this Monterey Cypress in front of McLaren Lodge.

Our staff did an amazing job organizing this year's event.  Congratulations to them and a happy holiday season to all of you.

 

Bach and Forth

Pianist Stephen Prutsman performed a spectacular concert on November 27 benefiting Rec and Park’s Azure Program for Children on the Autism Spectrum. Stephen, whose son is autistic, dedicated his talents toward this wonderful cause through a show at Herbst Theatre, featuring music from J.S. Bach fused with contemporary and world styles.

More than $10K was raised for the program, which will help send kids to camp next summer.


Boeddeker/Grants

On the heels of the recent good news of a $4M state grant for the renovation of Boeddeker Playground, we’ve received even more good news.  A $200K grant  was recently awarded by the Youth Stewardship Council.


The Boeddeker Park project is the result of a partnership with the Trust for Public Land. We’ve worked closely with community members, youth, and local groups to develop a city-approved, community-driven design plan to make Boeddeker Park a vibrant, welcoming resource for a dramatically underserved neighborhood that includes an estimated 6,000 youth residing within a half-mile of the park


The new park will have a basketball court, play areas for children and tots, fitness equipment, a lawn for sports and gathering, a perimeter path, and a brand new clubhouse—all items proposed by the community.


Thank you to the Youth Stewardship Council and its Youth Investment Program, which provides $30 million in funding over ten years to programs that provide outdoor opportunities for underserved youth or enhance parks and recreation areas.


Budget Instructions


As you may know, the Mayor's Office issued budget instructions to city departments this week. They are projecting the city's General Fund deficit for the '11-'12 budget at $379 million. The budget instructions ask departments to make a 10% reduction to General Fund support and to submit an additional 10% contingency reduction plan. As always, the department will have to cover any non-salary cost increases in addition to the General Fund reduction target. As soon as we have crunched the numbers and developed an estimate for next year's budget target, we will update the Commission.

NEN Awards
Last month, at the Neighborhood Empowerment Network (NEN) Awards, I had the honor of presenting the 2010 award for Outstanding Park Volunteer Group to the Panhandle Park Stewards.

The Panhandle Park Stewards, led by neighborhood resident Dale Danley, partners with Asian Pacific Recovery Services and other Panhandle residents on a longstanding cleanup day every second Saturday of the month. The group works with direction from Recreation and Park Department staff, including gardener Guillermo Vasquez and volunteer coordinators, to pull weeds, clean up mud, plant and tend to trees.

The Panhandle is a unique park space in the heart of the city that forms a three-quarters-of-a-mile long panhandle with the east end of Golden Gate Park. In the 1870s, engineer William Hammond Hall used the panhandle area as his experimental grounds to develop a wind-resistant solution for vegetation in the park, often referred to as the Outside Lands because of its wind-swept sand dunes.

Today, the Panhandle is bound by two major thoroughfares--- Oak Street to the south and Fell Street to the north. It is heavily used by families, neighbors, walkers, runners, commuters and visitors alike.

Trash and debris have historically been problems at the Panhandle, but the work by the Panhandle Park Stewards to clean up, beautify and invest their time and energy into the park have truly made a difference in helping the Recreation and Park Department provide a clean, safe and fun park experience for everyone.

The Recreation and Park Department oversees 225 parks and a total of 3,400 acres of green space in San Francisco. Many of our parks have a Friends group or community group associated with them that organizes volunteers and leads several beautification projects, cleanup days and fund raising events throughout the year.

In an era of severely limited resources, it’s all about partnerships and community. We simply can’t do it alone. Our Department relies heavily on the efforts of volunteers. Last year, volunteers donated more than 129,000 hours in support of our department’s parks and programs.

Thanks, Panhandle Park Stewards!

Winter Registration Begins December 18


Register for Winter 2011 classes beginning December 18 at 10 a.m. You can register online or in person at 11 sites around the city.

Winter classes begin January 2, 2011.

We offer scholarships to eligible San Francisco residents through our Recreation Scholarship Fund to cover the cost of recreation programs. To find out if you are eligible, call (415) 831-6800 during business hours or email us at sfreconline@sfgov.org.

Click here to browse the entire catalog or to get more information on registration.