Los Banos Rotary Club History
Longley Tells Of Recreation Plans

Grant Longley, the Franklin, Mass., university professor who is spending his second summer in Los Banos as director of recreation activities, Tuesday noon outlined to members of the Rotary Club his plans for the city recreation program this summer—a program in which the teenagers, 13 through 19, will receive the most attention and interest.

In the first year of the program, Longley explained, interest was concentrating on the activities of the smaller youngsters, and featured playground games and activities, plus swim programs for the older groups.

Attesting to the popularity of the summer program last year, Longley reported there was a total of 7,083 play sessions recorded. A play session is counted as each morning or afternoon that a boy or girl attends a planned recreational program or playground event. Total cost of the program last year, Longley said, was approximately 15 cents per child per day.

Attendance at the playground sessions in the opening week this year is well above last year, with 113 children reporting one morning at the grammar school field, and a top attendance of 102 at the afternoon session. At the Fairgrounds Park the attendance has been quite disappointing to date with a high day of 28 children present. Also disappointing to Longley and his assistants is the fact that to date none of the local Negro youth has taken advantage of the playground opportunity and the officials point out that these children will be made welcome and special efforts will be made toward attracting their interest and attendance.

Commenting briefly on the swim program at the community pool, Longley said the adult swimming class, started Monday evening, is very popular, with 44 women and 9 men reporting for lessons the opening day. Instruction is free but those who attend must pay the regular admission fee to the pool.
Also popular is the lifesaving class for teenagers, started Tuesday evening, and also the competitive swimming classes.

Longley said he hopes to hold one or more swimming meets here during the summer, with competition entered from all towns in the county. To do this, he will need some volunteer help to serve as officials and timers, and he will welcome the services of all adults interested. Experience is not necessary as Longley will conduct short instruction classes to demonstrate the various swimming strokes and point out the basic rules which govern the meets.
Relative to the teenage program, Longley particularly called attention to a teenager dance scheduled Thursday evening at Memorial hall, and invited Rotarians and all parents to drop in at the dance and watch their sons and daughters at play. Other dances and social events will be held regularly through the summer, all properly chaperoned and governed by specific rules of conduct.

Future Plans

Longley said he is very pleased with the adult interest that is being shown in the summer recreation program here and stated that Los Banos should begin to think about a full time recreation director, a position, incidentally, in which he himself would not be interested.

July 11, 1952

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