Auburn Parks and Recreation highlights year‑round youth programs, Rec and Roll and teen center transportation

Kevin Whitty, recreation manager for Auburn Parks and Recreation, summarized the department’s youth and community programs during the forum.

Whitty said the department runs year‑round programs from preschool through senior offerings, a full teen center that accepts youth for $1 per day or about $100 for the full school year and transportation from middle and high schools to the teen center. He described maker‑space activities and gym access for teens and noted the department does not turn away youth unable to pay program fees.

For summers, Whitty described a multi‑site camp program located at what he named the Lascaux campus and mobile programming called Rec and Roll, which repurposed an old command vehicle into a mobile activity unit that visits parks and school sites five days a week. Whitty said Rec and Roll served more than 1,000 children in the past three summers and operates as a free program that often coincides with summer meal service sites.

Whitty also noted Parks and Recreation operates the municipal golf course, the Mary Olson Farm historic site and a recently opened Postmark Center for the Arts downtown. He said programs are intended to expose residents to arts, science, history and play.

Ending: Parks and Recreation invited residents to follow up with staff for details and emphasized program expansion and equitable access as priorities in ongoing planning.

(Program names and participation counts were provided by the recreation manager in his presentation.)