Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Milwaukee Recreation strives to serve all ages and abilities with free and low-cost recreation programming. This summer, Milwaukee Recreation continued to provide new activities for young people at safe and enriching recreation spaces through the summer playgrounds program.
Milwaukee Recreation’s summer playgrounds are free, drop-in locations for ages 6-17, with staff offering enrichment, play opportunities, and free meals at 19 different playground sites from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. on weekdays from June 20 - Aug. 16.
During the summer months, many of Milwaukee Recreation’s playgrounds are often bustling with activity. One such example is Merrill Playfield. In the heart of the Merrill Park neighborhood, Merrill Playfield grew into one of the surrounding community’s most valued recreation spaces, largely due to the safe, welcoming, and engaging environment created by the site’s play leaders.
Antoinette Pacheco, a Merrill Park community member with deep roots in the neighborhood, was a frequent visitor at Merrill Playfield this summer, often spending up to five days a week at the park with her three children. Pacheco’s children joined in the activities, games, and events hosted at Merrill. That positive environment created by the play leaders kept her family coming back week after week.
“This year, it was the staff,” Pacheco said. “The staff was very pleasant, comfortable, easygoing, and respectful. It’s probably been the best since I’ve been back in the neighborhood.”
Merrill Playfield features a variety of play opportunities for community members, including age-appropriate playground equipment, basketball and tennis courts, a wading pool, and supervised games and activities.
“Without these parks, we would be lost,” Lucrecia Velez, a play leader at Merrill Playfield, said. “I’m like a mother of the park. I treat everything here like it was my own, like this is my park.”
Javien Johnson, another play leader at Merrill, emphasized that he works to ensure all participants at the playground are included in games, activities, and meal times.
“I make sure I play with the kids, make sure nobody gets hurt or hurts each other, make sure everybody has fun and enjoys their time at the park. When the food truck comes, I also make sure everybody eats,” Johnson said.
Staff are present at each site to not only facilitate safe and engaging activities, but to also serve free lunch and afternoon snack options to participants. Milwaukee Recreation served free meals at 16 of the 19 playground locations this summer, handing out over 25,000 fresh meals to young people.
On Thursdays throughout the season, the summer playgrounds program even extended beyond the boundaries of each playfield, as Milwaukee Recreation staff led young people from playgrounds around the city on a variety of Traveling Adventures field trips. This summer, more than 400 participants attended field trips to six different locations, including the Milwaukee County Zoo, the Milwaukee Public Museum, a Milwaukee Brewers game, Brown Deer Pond, Dave & Buster’s, and Action Territory.
Above all else, Milwaukee Recreation and its play leaders strive to provide community members with accessible spaces where they can feel comfortable and confident.
“I don’t know of too many places where kids can be kids, where they can think freely, act freely, and don’t have to worry about anything else,” Daveon Turner, a play leader at Merrill Playfield, said. “I just know this is a safe place for everybody, even the parents that come here. I just think a free mind is a happy life.”
Watch this video to see the staff and participants at Merrill Playfield in action on the playground!