Reprinted with permission of the Chicago Sun Times

by Kingsley Wood

(Editor's note: Some of the media are beginning to realize the importance that parks and recreation and leisure programming play in our lives. This article coaulhored by columnist Kingsley Wood appeared in the Chicago Sun Times on October 14, 1977.1

Some college students plan Christmas parties, think up guessing games for senior citizens and design spook houses - for course credits.

There are 50 such students at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. They have enrolled in a two-year program of courses leading to an Associate in Applied Science degree.

Mrs. Susan Cristao found the eight-course program "excellent preparation" for her current job: recreation supervisor of the Robert Crown Community Center in Evanston. She keeps a folder of her past test papers handy for reference. Some of the test requirements were:

• Plan an eight-week summer program for all age groups at a community center. List 12 activities that would be popular for 15-to-17 year-olds. Also, outline in detail how you would plan a fish rodeo.

• Lay out a detailed program and budget for a 1 1/2-hour Christmas party involving 50 youngsters ranging in age from 5 to 10.

• True or false: A good source of volunteers can be found among lawyers. (The correct answer is false. Mailmen would be a better source because they finish work early and often can be reached during the day, according to Mrs. Cristao.)

• True or false: One of the worst ways to reduce thirst on a hike is to eat small candy bars from time to time. (The answer is true.)

"Most people are surprised when I tell them I don't have a P.E. (physical education) degree," Mrs. Cristao said.

"A good knowledge of all sports is only a small part of the job."

Sevan Sarkisian took over the recreational leadership department at the College of DuPage seven years ago. The course offerings now include introduction to community recreation, indoor and outdoor recreation, organization and administration of a recreational program and therapeutic recreation and special populations.

"There's been a growth in job-opportunities for recreational leaders," Sarkisian observed. As a result, learning centers such as the University of Illinois, Triton College in River Grove and Eastern Illinois University in Charleston are among the growing number offering recreational leadership courses for credit.

About 60 per cent of Sarkisian's students find jobs in the recreation field after completing the program. They work in park districts, municipal recreation departments, nursing homes, retirement centers and recreation-oriented housing developments.

The rest usually complete B.A. or B.S. degree requiremens.

Sarkisian had extensive administrative experience in supervising park and community-center recreation programs when the College of DuPage asked him to head a program previously handled by members of its physical education departments.

His courses stress the importance of knowing how to keep small and large groups of varying ages busy with a variety of activities. Students learn how to create themes for occasions such as Halloween. They learn how to find film strips and musical groups popular with particular groups. The students are told senior citizens often want bridge and foreign language instructors, but they also have questions about health services and Social Security.

"The job is as wide as your imagination," observed Mrs. Cristao as she supervised a group of fourth-grade football players in a gym, helped four children in another room make leather coin purses and prepared for her arts-and-crafts, baking, puppetry, preschool and women's slim-trim and make-up and beauty class.

She recalled a haunted-house project last Halloween in which she and two fellow employees created a maze of scary rooms with scenes involving live persons in the Chandler Community Center in Evanston.

In one room they created a graveyard with cardboard headstones and leaf- and tree-branch beds. In another they cut up an old volleyball net to create a spider-web appearance around a woman who sat in a chair. Shredded black scarves hung from her arms and papier-mache spiders dropped from the ceiling, brushing the 500 children and adults as they passed. The designers also created a wood coffin, plus a catsup-covered Dracula figure inside.

"It was pretty gory," Mrs. Cristao recalled, "but everybody loved it."

Illinois Parks and Recreation 33 January/February, 1978