Phillips

"The Awakening Of Our People .. ."

By David F. Phillips, President
Illinois Park and Recreation Association
(Text of speech given at LIFE. BE IN IT. Reception at Governor's Mansion.)

We, that strive to provide quality, low cost, public leisure services in Illinois, have joined with our National Recreation and Park Association and have embarked on this campaign to raise the awareness of lllinoisans, and all Americans, about opportunities that are available to enhance the quality of life.

The challenge accepted by leisure service agencies throughout Illinois and throughout the nation, is to be a catalyst in our communities; to be a moving force in the development of lifetime skills; and to be a provider of quality leisure services.

We accept that we can be and must be a catalyst for promotion of the concept that quality of life is more important than quantity of life. Moreover, we accept the responsibility of serving as coordinators of the myriad opportunities for leisure activities for families and individuals.

The Life. Be In It., calendar of events brochure is a sampling of leisure opportunities that are available in communities from throughout the state.

Activities include:

• Community and Regional Festivals

• River Races

• Balloon Launches

• Camping

• Age Group and Adult Athletic Contests

• Community Concerts and Art Shows

• Community Picnics

• Trips of All Types

and much more.

When you take the opportunity to review the calendar of events, you will find that upcoming activities emphasize family involvement and community togetherness.

Perhaps Saul Alinsky, the father of community organizing, put it best when he said:

"Only in the pooling of all of the strength of every peoples institution and in the awakening of our people to participation lies hope of salvation on earth."

That is not a battle won overnight, nor is it solely or exclusively the fight of the park and recreation movement. It is a charge to each of us involved in serving people. While the Park and Recreation movement has accepted the pro-active posture of the catalyst, the charge is to "every people's institution."

We in Illinois, blessed with the "magnificent miles" and we in America, blessed with more natural, human and financial resources than any prior civilization, are the beneficiaries of medical advances which now insure most of us a quantity of life heretofore unsurpassed. Technological advances now provide us more discretionary time than ever before. Economic conditions have currently forced literally millions of people to have more free time than they want.

Our nation, built on the puritan work ethic that permeates our society yet today, stresses the premise that one must earn leisure; that leisure is a secondary reward earned after being work productive.

This premise is gradually changing, as we gradually accept that leisure is inherently good on its own merits, and is not merely a Pavlovian reward for being work productive.

We are a nation in transition. We seek quality of life, not just quantity of life. Especially now, with our aging population, we must learn to accept that there is something to life after retirement, other than just waiting for death. That each person, is or can be, a contributing member of society even if he or she doesn't presently contribute to the production system.

Life Be In It. They are simple words yet, they are filled with complex questions and perhaps contradictory answers. According to U.S. News and World Report, Americans spend one out of every eight dollars as a Recreation dollar, more than on national defense, yet we support Proposition 13 type revenue and spending limitations. We want more for less.

Quality of life and how to define it, let alone provide it with shrinking resources and rising expectations, is a challenge to every people's institution. We, as leisure service advocates, have accepted the role of catalyst in this renewed effort to, as Thoreau said, "affect the quality of the day".

We thank you for joining with us and hope you will attend the Life. Be In It. banquet planned for next year. Lastly we should continue to focus on our joint responsibility to "affect the quality of the day" in the "awakening of our people to participation."

Mr. LIFE, as portrayed in the LIFE. BE IN It. cartoons, joins in festivities at the LIFE. BE IN IT. reception at the Governor's Mansion. Looking on are Arlene Mulder, Arlington Heights, and Steve Scholten, Medinah, co-chairpersons of the Joint Public Awareness Committee, and Hal Haskell, Wilmington, Delaware, chairman of the NRPA Board of Trustees.

Illinois Parks and Recreation   10   September/October 1983