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Show "The Woman's Touch" Many communities have begun be-gun to realize the importance of providing good recreational facilities for their people. They have discovered that providing pro-viding recreation is one of the most effective ways to combat poor physical and mental health, juvenile delinquency and drime. By reducing illness ill-ness and crime, recreation pays for itself in dollars and cents as well as happiness. In the long run, it costs less than the care of the human wreckage that results when good recreation is lacking. Some communities have standards of value which contribute con-tribute to excellent recreation programs. Others have preferences prefer-ences which weaken or prevent good recreation programs for all. For example, when one community builds a new school gymnasium, it may limit the use of the gymnasium to the training of varsity teams. Thus it deprives the adult citizens of the use of the gymnasium for athletic activities. acti-vities. Other places, use the classrooms, shops, libraries, and other school facilities for community recreation in tlie evening after school classes end. In one small town, there was very little to offer in the way of recreation. Adult citizens recreational activities were limited. Teenagers had only an occasional dance or party at school. They spent most of their time going to movies, riding in cars, or just standing around talking. A group of students talked to their teachers and decided to do something about it. First they looked for a place that would be suitable for a recreation recrea-tion center. They talked to people about their hopes and' their plans soon got around town. A local businessman offered to let them use one of his buildings if they would do the work to fix it up. The group spent endless hours working after school, and soon the whole town became be-came interested. Dealers gave them paint to redecorate, redecor-ate, and people offered them furniture and equipment. Several clubs donated money. Soon it was equipped with lounge chairs, tables, games, a refreshment concession, a place for dancing, a record player and even a television set. f They met at school and drew up their own rules for operating the center. The hours it would be open, regulations regu-lations about conduct and the use of the equipment and so on. The P. T. A. voted to ; collect and use funds to hire a part-time director and help them get organized. Before long the town had a big recreation program. One of the most important result of this project was the new attitudes of the older people toward the teenagers. Instead of judging them by the behavior of a few who got into trouble, they looked on them with new respect, and began to cooperate with them. These young people gave the town a good example of what they were really like. |