ollies innie

What Recreators Can Do

It costs approximately $30,000 to incarcerate a juvenile offender for one year. If that money were available to Parks and Recreation, we could do the following:

Take him swimming twice a week for 24 weeks,

And give him four tours of the zoo, plus lunch,

And enroll him in 50 community center programs,

And visit the nature center twice,

And let him play league softball for a season,

And tour the gardens at the park twice,

And give him two weeks of tennis lessons,

And enroll him in two weeks of day camp,

And let him play three rounds of golf,

And act in one play,

And participate in one fishing clinic,

And take a four-week pottery class,

And play basketball eight hours a weeks for 40 weeks,

After which we could return to you: $29,125 and one much happier kid.

Reprinted, by permission, from E. O’Sullivan, 1999, Setting a course for change (National Recreation and Park Association).