Steve Schmidt works with kids as they enjoy some of the new activities available at the center.
“Is ‘zam’ a word?” asked the boy who had run into Steve Schmidt’s office at the McIlvain Rec Center on Penn Street.
Schmidt, the center’s supervisor, shook his head, and the disappointed kid raced out of the room and back across the hall where competition in a Scrabble game was starting to heat up. Children who were there for an after-school program also were playing Monopoly and other games. Kids in another room were singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. They all were inside, supervised, safe and having a good time.
Schmidt, interviewed at the center on Nov. 5, hopes there are more good times to come at the center, which sits across Penn Street from the back of the Frankford Transportation Center. More of everything is what he wants for the kids. More is what he’s been trying to give them.
Schmidt said that when he took McIlvain’s top job in April, the Frankford rec center, which used to be home field to the Frankford Boys Club, had just two programs for kids — preschool and after-school. Now, there are eight, he said. Five more are planned for next year, he added.
He’s proudest of soccer for 3- to 9-year-olds. Frankford’s not a neighborhood known for soccer, he said.
“They never had soccer” at McIlvain, he said. There had been programs for football, basketball and baseball, but now 45 kids have signed to play on the pitch in an instructional league. Twelve-year-olds will participate in the Parks and Recreation Department’s indoor soccer league.
“We have a lot more activity,” he said. Hip Hop class is a popular favorite. Fourteen kids, 7–15 years old, are participating. “We’re going to add classes after the holidays,” he said.
Schmidt, who’s been with the Recreation Department 18 years, said, parents “just don’t know what’s available” for their kids at McIlvain.
There will be programs for adults, too. Zumba and salsa classes are being planned. Other programs currently being planned are: karate, children’s arts and crafts, adult craft club, flag football, women’s softball, aerobics, yoga and ceramics. There will be acting classes on Friday evenings. Schmidt said he’s written seven plays and has directed more than 25 Department of Rec productions.
Parents who want to find out what McIlvain can offer their kids are free to stop by and talk to Schmidt any weekday from 1 to 9:30 p.m., he said.
Schmidt also wants to have a gardening program for kids, but that depends on whether or not he can get some residents to provide the wood and fencing and the manpower to enclose a garden to protect it from vandalism.
That needed help is part of the challenges Schmidt said he must meet. Another is awareness.
“The neighborhood must take ownership of the playground,” he said. “People have to realize this is their center … I just work here.”
He’s already getting some help. The Frankford Gazette reported the Frankford Community Development Corporation donated four laptops and that state Rep.-elect Jason Dawkins has promised three more.
Schmidt said he’s gotten the building repainted, but he needs folding chairs and some new tables.
Charles Craige of the Danny Craige Foundation said the organization, named for his brother, will donate proceeds from a fifty-fifty drawing at an upcoming Frankford Boys Club reunion to McIlvain. A portion of the proceeds from a Nov. 28 golf outing also will go to the rec center.
Craige said family ties to McIlvain go deep. He and his six sibling were born and raised in the area, and were always involved with the Frankford Boys Club, whose members played at McIlvain. The club moved out of the neighborhood five years ago, but the attachment is still strong, Craige said.
“We want to help,” he said.
The informal Boys Club reunion will be held from 8 to 11 p.m. on Nov. 15 at Fluke’s, 7401 State Road. Tickets are $25 and will be available at the door.
The golf outing at the Northampton Valley Country Club, 299 Newtown-Richboro Road, Richboro, will cost $75 per player and includes green fees, cart, prize money, a gift, a hotdog and beer before the round and a sandwich after the round as well as a contribution to the Danny Craige Foundation. Players must sign up by Nov. 14. Buy tickets by mail with checks payable to the Danny Craige Foundation, 66 Green Drive, Churchville, PA 18966. To buy tickets online, visit www.ticketleap.com and search for “Danny Craige Foundation.”
For more information about the foundation, visit dannycraigefoundation.org ••
McIlvain happenings…
• Instructional basketball: For boys and girls 3, 4 and 5 years old. Wednesday evenings at 6 p.m. and Saturday mornings at 9:30 a.m. Kids 6, 7 and 8 will play 6 p.m. Thursdays and 10:45 a.m. on Saturdays. All games and practices will be held at Frankford High School. Cost is $20 per child. Coaches are needed.
• Breakfast with Santa Claus at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13. Kids get hot cakes, sausage and juice and a small gift from Santa. The event is for children 10 and under and costs $7 per child. Breakfast for parents is $5.
• Christmas in Frankford on Thursday, Dec. 18, will be a full night of holiday sounds at the Grace City Church in Wissinoming. Advance ticket prices are $5 and can be purchased at the playground. Tickets will be $7 at the door.
For more information, stop in McIlvain at 5200 Penn St. or call 215–685–1228.
Play time: Above, (left to right) Justice Blackburn, 10, Maty Diall, 10, Drena Pandridge, Mekhi Cowan, 11, Steve Schmidt, and Mia Lowe, 6, play scrabble at the McIlvain Rec Center. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTOS
