San Fernando : Free Parks Program Made Year-Round

The kids who come to play after school at tiny Layne Park in San Fernando don’t mind that somebody lost their baseball. They found an old tennis ball to pitch, instead.

They don’t care that the bat they play with is just a stick of wood.

“As long as they’ve got something to do, and they see me getting into it, then they’re into it, too,” said Albert Cuevas, a 22-year-old education major at Cal State Northridge who runs a free, informal sports and activities program for students of all ages on weekdays at the park.

The city this year extended its summer playground program to year-round status, officials said. The summer activities program, launched at Las Palmas and Recreation parks, was so successful--drawing kids of all ages for organized basketball, tag football, baseball, swimming and games--that officials recently added one-acre Layne Park and under-used Pioneer Park to the program.

Since its start about a month ago, attendance in the playground programs, which run from 2:30 to 5:30 on weekdays, has averaged about 20 kids each afternoon at the two smaller parks.

At Layne Park, Cuevas arrives each day and sets up games, assembles the Ping-Pong table, doles out basketballs and soccer balls. On hot days, he might arrange a trip to the pool at Recreation Park.

Gwen Indermill, city recreation director, supervises the program. “It’s a great method to reach our youth,” she said. “It gives them a positive recreation outlet, and a chance to do things they might not be exposed to.”

Besides games and sports, Indermill organizes field trips for youngsters in the program.

For more information, call the city Recreation and Community Services Department at (818) 898-1290.