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Pasco County parks leaders highlight mental‑health program, summer camp and growing facilities
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Summary
Pasco County parks managers described a mental‑health initiative, a summer day‑camp that serves more than 1,000 children, maintenance of 129 athletic fields and several new park projects on the horizon during a county podcast celebrating National Parks and Recreation Month.
Parks leaders for Pasco County used a county podcast to outline recent programs, staffing priorities and facility growth as the county marked National Parks and Recreation Month.
On the Pasco podcast, Assistant Recreation Manager Deanna Baltimore said the department "serves over a thousand children with our summer day camp program," and that camp planning begins in January to staff and prepare for the season. Parks Manager Rob Mahler said the county maintains "129 athletic fields," and that demand outstrips supply.
The podcast also featured the county's mental‑health initiative, Recreate Your Mind. Mahler said the program—started after the death of a team member—uses recreation as "a catalyst to your mental health," and that the department is on its fifth year of a trail run tied to the effort.
Baltimore described EPIC, a camp for children with cognitive and developmental disabilities, as an example of removing barriers to participation: parents enrolling children "where they never thought that they could before," and seeing children participate in activities "they're not self contained" was, she said, a major success.
Mahler said staff perform a variety of work behind the scenes: grounds maintenance, custodial tasks, field prep and special‑event set up. "They're not seen," he said of field crews, "but they'll go from doing custodial work to grounds maintenance to then actually prepping the fields." Baltimore added that parks staff also handle hiring and early‑year program planning to meet seasonal demand.
The podcast touched on capital expansion. Mahler said there are several new parks planned—"five of them on the horizon"—and described a planned recreation complex in Dade City as a multiuse project intended to serve areas of the county that have been less developed than the west side. The hosts said bond funding has been used to support development in the eastern part of the county; specific amounts were not specified on the podcast.
The county's Board of County Commissioners was cited during the episode as supportive of parks increases; Mahler and Baltimore credited the board with backing efforts to expand facilities and programming.
Why it matters: Parks and recreation programs affect daily life for families, youth leagues and residents who use fields, trails and special‑needs programs. The managers emphasized both the visible services—events and youth sports—and the less visible work of maintenance and program planning that keeps those services running.
Looking ahead, Mahler said partnerships and multiuse designs are central to upcoming projects and that expansion is intended to extend services to the county's growing eastern areas.
