[Mpls] 10 Nov Park Board Meeting Highlights and Lowlights, Addendum

[Chris Johnson]

Here is the text of 14 year old Amanda Whitaker's letter to the Park Board 
which was read during the public hearing on the proposed budget.
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"For the last 3 summers I spent all of my time at Marshall Terrace Park.
The park means a lot to me.  I am going to try to attend the meeting,
but if not, I want you to know how much the park staff means to the kids
of the neighborhood.

Most of the kids had parents who work during the day. With park staff at
Marshall Terrace many of us were allowed to leave our houses during the
day and hang out with other kids our ages in a safe environment.  Many
of the kids I met at the park I had never met before, even though they
lived only a few blocks from my house, yet we never heard of each other.

The park staff always made sure we had fun things planned, like arts and
crafts, kickball games, painting, karaoke, field trips to Lynx games,
or to the zoo. The past two years we had 2 wonderful park staff people,
Kim and Erin. They taught us right from wrong, if anyone swore, it meant
20 push-ups or $.25 into the swear jar. We had the "everyday kids", they
were the children that just couldn't miss a day of the park, there was
about 14 of us, me being one of them. Everyday we had at least 30 kids
come through the park. Many of the kids did not get to play games at
home. There was a family of about 3 kids, from the ages of 3 to 9, their
father worked all day and their mother was totally out of the picture.
Many days the park staff would share their lunches with these kids,
because if they didn't there would be no lunch for them. These kids
needed the park staff there.

It got us kids out and active instead of sitting and watching the TV.
It also kept us safe, we were busy with fun and games at the park so we
couldn't get involved in negative activities. Even though the summer is
now well over, I still call and write to Kim and Erin, they are like
sisters to me. Even though they are in college they take time to show us
they still care.

Thanks for your time. Hopefully I'll see you at the meeting,
Andrea Whitaker"

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Reported by Chris Johnson, Fulton