High school playing role of rec center

The old Wildwood Recreation Center was razed in June and the new center is expected to be built in the fall of 2001.

By KIBRET MARKOS

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- For the first time since opening, the Wildwood Recreation Center at 2650 10th Ave. S is not playing host to summer programs. Built in 1960, the center was torn down in June to make way for a new, larger building.

Wildwood Heights residents eagerly await the completion of the $4.55-million community center. Groundbreaking for the new facility will be at 11 a.m. Monday. Set to open in fall 2001, the 32,000-square-foot center will offer two air-conditioned basketball courts, meeting rooms, an arts wing and a computer lab.

Until then, the center's baseball and summer basketball programs, as well as the after-school tutorial sessions, will not be held. But children from the neighborhood are spending their days at St. Petersburg High School, where the staff is temporarily offering its summer play camp and teen programs.

The 10-week summer program, for children between 5 and 18 years old, offers community service, sports, field trips and beauty pageants. "We keep the kids busy from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.," said Kenneth Robinson, a recreation leader at the center.

This year's program enrollment includes 255 children and will end Friday. The program was shortened by a week this year because it is being held on the school's premises. Parents are grateful for the center. "The people here are really good with kids," said Robinson, who has three children who attended the center.

Barbara Simmons, another recreation leader with three children at the center, said the community service program is teaching her children a lot.

"There is so much here for them to benefit from," she said.

The kids like it, too. Ten-year-old Kevonta Brown, a fifth-grader at Melrose Elementary School, spends his day running and playing basketball and football.

"I love this place," said Kevonta, who is enrolled in his third summer at the center and already is looking forward to next year.

Curtisha Nunnally, a 9-year-old student at Lakewood Elementary School, prefers to jump rope and play with toys. "But I like this center because I'm making a lot of friends," she said.

After the summer program ends, the center's staff of 11 will be relocated to the Campbell Park recreation centerand Woodlawn Recreation Administration. After-school tutorials will be canceled until the new center is completed.

Nearly 100 children had to be transported between the Wildwood Heights neighborhood and St. Petersburg High School this summer. The remaining children relied on public transportation or had to be driven by their parents.

"We are making good out of a difficult situation," Robinson said. "We know we will be having a better center."

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