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Some recreation centers get a little help from 'friends'
(Published June 13, 2005)

By ANDREW MOISAN
Special to The Common Denominator

For years, Nancy Wilson has nudged officials at the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation to iron out the kinks left after they renovated Chevy Chase Community Center six years ago.

"It is a never-ending battle," Wilson said. "The place floods. The roof leaks."

The 27-year resident of Northwest Washington's Chevy Chase neighborhood and board member of the community’s citizens association said she’s "stayed on top" of city officials to fix the problems, but help has come too slowly.

"Molasses is slow, but this is ridiculous," she said.

If she’s tired of waiting, however, technically she doesn’t have to any longer.

She could, instead, follow the examples of other residents who, having seen their recreation centers fall short of what they feel their neighborhoods need, formed "friends" groups, which aid the ailing facilities built with residents’ tax dollars.

Spending extra time and their own money to fix problems and thwart new ones, the groups have popped up across the city where the paths of concerned neighbors and neglected recreation centers have crossed.

"Friends" groups sometimes also endorse and support the city in its planning of the centers, which provide pools, playgrounds and other facilities for residents' leisure activities.

The Friends of Takoma Recreation Center, for example, helped get an aquatic center added to their facility; the Friends of Guy Mason helped with landscaping and other aesthetics at theirs; and the Friends of Friendship Park planted new trees for Turtle Park.

Doing this, the groups take matters into their own hands. And members of many of them say they are grateful they have the option.

"Without the friends group, we really wouldn't have much of a playground," said John Van Voorhis, a Forest Hills resident and member of the Friends of Forest Hills Playground.

There are about 63 recreation centers in the District, according to Carol Watson, program development and evaluation manager for the Department of Parks and Recreation. She said the department is working to compile a concise list of "friends" groups in the city, but it hasn’t been completed.

The groups, many of which meet regularly, can apply for federal tax-exempt status as charitable organizations through the Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c)(3) -- something the nonprofit group Friends of Takoma Recreation Center did.

"I think that it is very beneficial to form such a group," said Luke Turner, a member of the Takoma group. "We have been successful in having the new Takoma Aquatic Center constructed and the preserving of the old pool house into the new Takoma Community Center."

But for all the help they can offer, the "friends" groups have found some residents with questions of fairness.

Why, some have asked, should a small group of residents be able to fund changes at publicly owned recreation centers, affecting whole neighborhoods without everyone having some input?

Others have wondered if members of the groups, having personally invested in the parks and centers, feel they have more right to them than others, despite everyone’s taxes paying for them.

And then there are those like Nancy Wilson, who says she won’t, on principle, drive efforts to form a "friends" group in Chevy Chase.

"I’m not willing to ask for money," Wilson said.

Rather, Wilson said she feels the onus is on the recreation department and city contractors to maintain the facilities built with her taxes. She said she hopes the city will still fix the problems at her neighborhood center, acknowledging that they said they would. But she acknowledged feeling frustrated by the situation.

The department "acts like they're listening to you, then they don’t do anything. It’s inertia," she said.

For its part, the city's recreation department supports the "friends" groups’ movement and tries to ensure that most residents in a neighborhood support the idea of a new recreation center, Watson said.

"They serve in different capacities," Watson said of the groups, explaining that some work with city officials to establish programs tailored to specific neighborhoods while others have narrower focuses due to fewer members and smaller facilities.

What about those who feel the groups unfairly position themselves to speak for their entire neighborhood about a recreation center?

"You do have people who are very active in their communities," Watson said, adding, though, that city officials don't solely communicate with "friends" groups in neighborhoods where they exist, even if some people think that’s the case.

"You don’t have to be a member of a ‘friends of’ group to come to us to discuss some of your ideas," Watson said. "We’re here to serve the entire community."

Melissa Lane, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 3, said she has seen some tension in Glover Park among residents, the groups and the city as officials plan to break ground soon on a new Stoddert Recreation Center there.

But anxieties have eased, she said, in part because some have noticed that city officials went beyond the Friends of Glover Park and the Friends of Guy Mason groups to gather information about how residents feel about the planned facility.

Still, Lane said her neighborhood's "friends" groups are needed.

"It doesn’t hurt to have somebody bringing (the facility) to the attention of the city," Lane said. "It can’t hurt to keep your name out there."