CLIPBOARD : TWILA REID COMMUNITY PARK

Come forth into the light of

things, Let Nature be your teacher. -- William Wordsworth

It was 18 years ago when retired elementary school teacher Twila Reid dug a spade into the earth, ceremoniously breaking ground at the park bearing her name.

“I taught some of your brothers and sisters and I know many of your parents,” said the septuagenarian schoolteacher to students from nearby Twila Reid Elementary School. “I’m so happy and proud to be here. I call it my park and my school.”

For the pupils, the west Anaheim park meant a playground within walking and bicycling distance from their homes. For Twila Reid, the park served as recognition of a career spanning nearly four decades in the Savanna Elementary School District as teacher and principal. Reid was also the first woman to become a school district superintendent in California.

“(She) loved teaching, and the students never forgot her,” said Reid’s daughter, Eileene La Barthe of Corona del Mar. “I have letters people wrote her years after she retired, thanking her for teaching them that the world is a beautiful place.”

The 27-acre park serves well the memory of a woman who devoted herself to children until her death in 1989 at the age of 94.

In the center of the park, a colorful complex of slides, swings and monkey bars is surrounded by creosote piering. From nearby benches, parents watch their children skitter across the playground.

Older children, as well as adults, can take on a challenging 18-hole Frisbee golf course that dots the southwestern section of the park. Players “tee off” from marked areas and throw the Frisbee toward a metal “tree,” the equivalent to a cup on a golf green. Each hole is given a par rating, designating the number of throws it should take to finish the hole.

“Tossing a Frisbee a couple of hundred yards is not as easy as it sounds,” said Tom Hatchett, an avid disc golfer. “Especially with all the trees out here.”

Hatchett, who dedicates his lunch hours honing his Frisbee golf skills, says most serious disc golfers carry a small backpack filled with different size Frisbees. There are heavy discs for throwing long distances and thinner discs for accurate tosses into the basket.

“This is a pretty course,” he said. “You can smell the fresh strawberries in the field next door. There’s always nice people around, too. You know, kids just out having fun shooting hoops or tossing a baseball. It’s a good place to get away from it all . . . even if for just an hour.”

Next to the disc golf course, a huge field easily accommodates football or soccer games. A fenced-in baseball diamond takes up the southwest corner of the park and, across from the basketball courts, covered picnic areas are built near the horseshoe pits. A man-made lake, surrounded by weeping willows, lends a romantic air to the landscape.

Given its amenities, the park site is ideal for family or company picnics. Street parking and ample lot make the park highly accessible to groups, and one of the covered picnic areas seats up to 100 people. Brick barbecue pits are next to the picnic tables.

“This park is a lasting tribute to a woman who taught so many children that the world is a wonderful place to explore and enjoy to its fullest,” La Barthe said.

Hours: 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily

Address: 3100 W. Orange Ave., Anaheim

Telephone: (714) 999-5191