By Felix Hoover

For YourNewsColumbus.com

Posted 06-18-09

 

 

A professional hockey team and a 100-year-old settlement house have given new life to two local recreation centers that held special ceremonies this week.

 

On Wednesday, June 17, Columbus Blue Jackets player R.J. Umberger dropped the puck for a face-off between Rachel Leonard, 14, and Lyrik Easley, 9, who will enter

 

Independence High School in the fall, and Lyrik Easley, 9, who attends East Columbus Elementary School. The girls were among a group of youngsters who enthusiastically took part in the reopening ceremony at Krumm Park Recreation Center, 854 Alton Ave. on the North Side. The street-hockey rink where the drop occurred had been completed shortly before the center closed in February because of the city's budgetary cuts.

 

Krumm was among about a dozen cultural and recreation facilities closed at the beginning of the year. Religious and civic leaders rallied behind Krumm and other centers in hopes of getting the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department to reopen some of them.

 

The effort led by Mayo Makinde of the East Columbus Civic Association, which serves the Krumm Park area, the Rev. Michael Reeves Sr. of Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church and the Rev. Dwayne Butler of New Wiine Christian Fellowship reached the right ears, resulting in a $21,000 grant from the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation and money from the city's hotel/motel tax to restore programs for the summer and fall.

 

"We listened when Mayo Makinde and the children came down to City Hall and told us how much we needed this facility," said City Councilmember Priscilla Tyson, who chairs the council's recreation committee.

 

Tyson, Makinde and Recreation and Parks Director Alan D. McKnight reminded the people who gathered around the rink that Krumm is being funded only through the end of the year unless a proposed half-percent increase in the city income tax passes in a special election on Aug. 4.

 

Taxation wasn't uppermost in the minds of the children who were playing basketball in the gym inside Krumm or testing their street-hockey skills at the rink.

 

"It's pretty cool having a huge game against a professional hockey player and instructors," said Davon Wilson, 12, who seemed impervious to the temperature in spite of wearing goalie gear that did little to dissipate heat.

 

Then again, he didn't have to deal with full-body cover as did Stinger, the Blue Jackets' mascot.

 

Wilson lives in Erie, Pa., but uses the park when visiting relatives in the Krumm area.

 

Many of the young people at Krumm have learned to play street hockey, roller hockey and ice hockey in the Learn to Skate program conducted by the Blue Jackets Foundation.

Cathy Mayne Lyttle, a spokeswoman for the foundation, saluted Blue Jackets founder John H. McConnell, who died last year.

 

"There is no better way to honor his memory than by helping open this recreation center," she said.

 

 

Sawyer Recreation Center on the East Side has generated many memories of its own, but not nearly as many as the social-service agency that's taking it off the closed list for now.

 

The Neighborhood House, which held its 100th annual board meeting on Tuesday, June 16, had already been conducting programs at Sawyer before the rec center became one of the budgetary casualties. Along with the Mount Vernon Avenue District Improvement Association, Neighborhood House is expanding activities in the rec center on Atcheson Street. The center reopened on June 6 in conjunction with Neighborhood House's annual community reunion. Families were treated to free picnic fare, horse rides and other activities.

 

For now the city is being renamed Sawyer Resouces Center, reflective of the social-services programs that attract many families, said Allen Huff, the Neighborhood House's president and chief executive officer.

 

Programs at Sawyer include Neighborhood Nest, After-school program, cultural events, Saturday canteen for teens, summer youth programs, senior services and outpatient counseling groups.

 

The annual meeting, held at Villa Milano, included a talk by former State Sen. C.J. Prentiss, the swearing-in of officers and presentation of scholarships to two recent high school graduates, Patrick Jones of East High and Denzell Matlock of Brookhaven. Both recipients are multisport stars who plan to play on the football team at Central State University.

 

Prentiss presented a timeline that described the social backdrop for what was happening at the Neighborhood House at different points in history. For example, when Rosie the Riveters were working in bomber factories during World War II, Neighborhood House was providing daycare for moms in the work force. Later, the agency adopted programs to fight substance abuse and various health initiatives in response to changing community needs.

 

Whereas many former East Side residents reflected on the leadership of Billie Brown Jones, longtime director at Neighborhood House, former City Councilwoman Fran Ryan recalled Vice President Hubert Humphrey's visit to the building when it was on Leonard Avenue.

 

Ajamu Brown of the ADAMH Board, remembers the Neighborhood House as his first babysitter. Others recalled the dedicated service of Lela Boykin, who recently retired after 34 years of service.

 

Numerous proclamations and resolutions from city and county officials acknowledged the agency's century of service to the needy and expressed wishes for continued success for at least another 100 years.