FROM THE EDITOR

Never mind that I wrote this on the cusp of a central Illinois blizzard. By the time you read it, it will be spring. (Well, maybe.)

Of course most of you work at park and recreation agencies, while I just get to play at them. But I can imagine the hectic energy that comes this time of year as you gear up the warm weather programming, prepare the ball fields, groom the links, check the pool pumps and prepare for the seasonal workers.

Our association celebrates spring - and the role of parks and recreation in helping the state's youth - by promoting April and May as "Flying 4 Kids" kite fly months. Agencies from across the state host flying events to raise awareness for the Park District Youth License Plate, the proceeds from which help fund grants for agencies' beyond school programming. If your agency sponsors a kite fly, then you already know that it's a great way to bring families out of the winter blahs. If your agency would like to plan a fly, please contact IAPD Public Relations Manager Bobbie Jo Hill (bjhill@ILparks.org). She can set you up with a Flying 4 Kids Event Planners Guide, with tips for planning and staffing the event and sample news releases and other promotional materials.

My son's first kite flying experience was at the inaugural Flying 4 Kids event at the Springfield Park District on April 23, 2005. He was three years old and armed with the cheapest little kite you ever saw. But to him, that kite was a champ, because on it were caricatures of his four favorite heroes (at the time): Greg, Murray, Anthony and Jeff Wiggle. And that thing was going to fly no matter how hard that frigid, kite-gobbling, gale-force wind blew. Magical thinking to be sure, but then, right on up to the fifth grade, I flew nothing but paper kites with the likeness of the man on the moon, because everyone knew they flew highest.

My son (with a big assist from his mom) got his kite up. And, in not much time, the wind chopped it down. To this day, he never remembers the crash, only that his kite flew when others wouldn't - part of the optimism of spring, I guess. One evening about a month later, I asked my son if he would like to fly his new Wiggles kite after supper.

"It's dark outside," he said.

I told him we could fly at night. It would be fun.

"No," he shook his head. "We'll bump the stars."

That, too, is the optimism of spring - a feeling you foster at your agencies when you provide families like mine with the opportunity to play together. So thank you all for making the effort and for daring to bump the stars.

— RODD WHELPLEY

Editor

PS - Do you like the magazine's new look? My thanks go to Design Diva Shani Goss for continuing to make this publication look great.

March 2007/Illinois Parks/4