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Aug 22, 2023

» Schenectady parks director Willie Deane brings youth programs back to city parks

SCHENECTADY — A group of Schenectady children gathered in Steinmetz Park on Thursday afternoon, taking part in a tie dye art project before moving on to play board games under the supervision of a

SCHENECTADY — A group of Schenectady children gathered in Steinmetz Park on Thursday afternoon, taking part in a tie dye art project before moving on to play board games under the supervision of a group of youth counselors.

The scene represented the vision of Schenectady Director of Parks Willie Deane, who has launched a summer youth program in four city parks in his first year with the city administration.

Deane bounced between Steinmetz, Central Park, Orchard Park and Wallingford Park on Thursday, overseeing the summer enrichment program.

A dozen kids from ages 7 to 13 gathered at Steinmetz Park for the program on Thursday afternoon, with the free summer program offering local children a place to stay active and participate in cultural activities from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays throughout July and August.

“With the parks not being able to provide summer enrichment programs for over two decades, we have to build this thing from the ground up,” Deane said. “This will be the first annual of many to come.”

During the first month of the summer program, kids participated in numerous activities across four city parks including musical classes and chess lessons.

“We have a bike program and financial literacy program that will both be starting next week, then the following week we have a boat-building program,” Deane said. “So there’s a lot of great things happening in the parks that are free and available to everybody who’d like to participate.”

The city has partnered with organizations including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Schenectady and the YMCA to help with staffing counselors for the initiative, with the city employing additional counselors under its summer youth employment program.

Victoria Johnston of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Schenectady instructed kids on how to make ice tie dye shirts on Thursday, with the children placing ice on a blank white t-shirt and proceeding to splash colorful dyes on the clothing to create psychedelic designs.

“It gets the kids excited to be doing arts activities and it brings the joy of art into their lives,” Johnston said. “I went to Schenectady High and went to Schenectady schools all of my life, so I know the impact this kind of thing has. Especially when school isn’t going on anymore and kids are left to their own needs, it can be really debilitating. Programs like this really make a huge difference.”

The summer program will hold a closing awards ceremony on Aug. 23 at 6 p.m. at the GE Theatre at Proctors.

Deane said that before the program starts its second year in 2024, he wants to increase awareness in the community for the initiative and noted that the city could partner with the Schenectady City School District, which has its own summer enrichment program that has served approximately 2,000 children at 13 city sites this summer.

“I’ll reach out to the school system so we can have better synergy, because if we don’t work together then it’s like we’re competing for the same kids,” he said.

Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy said the summer parks program was a priority for Deane when he took over the parks department in March after the director position had been vacant for 20 years.

“The city used to have a great history of providing services and we haven’t done it for two and a half decades,” McCarthy said. “So Willie’s been tasked with recreating something where there’s not a clear record of what we’ve done in the past. So it’s exciting and he’s got a good group of people that he recruited. I think it’s getting traction and it’s filling a need within the community.”

Johnston said that parents have provided positive feedback for the summer program, which also provides children with a free lunch every weekday.

“It’s perfect because a lot of parents don’t have access to childcare and this is somewhere safe and fun for the kids to go,” she said.

Deane, a star basketball player who led Schenectady High to a state basketball championship in 1998, said he hopes to add organized sports leagues to the summer program next year.

“In the timeframe that we had to start the program, there wasn’t time to get everything organized to have a league,” Deane said. “We would have to get referees and shirts and hire coaches and find the kids to fill the rosters. But for next season we’ll have leagues going and we’re going to bring back the Jerry Burrell Classic, which was influential on the success that I had in my career.”

Deane said that he has been open to constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement from counselors and parents as the parks department has worked to get the summer program off the ground.

“It’s been stressful to say the least, but I’ve been proud of the fact that we’ve been able to get young kids opportunities to make an impact on even younger kids’ lives,” he said on Thursday.

Contact Ted Remsnyder at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TedRemsnyder.

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