LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Lexington Parks and Recreation Department is amid its annual Summer Playground Days, and children are taking advantage of the program. 

According to the Lexington Parks and Recreation Department, Summer Playground Days aims to provide safe, engaging programming in neighborhood parks recommended for children over 5 years old. Each day, parks and recreation staff visit different parks to host a variety of engaging and educational activities, such as recreational sports, make-and-take arts and crafts, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) projects, supervised playground play, and the Park and Play program van.

The program began on June 13 and runs through the first week of August. Parks and recreation department employee Kayleedee Long said the response has been hit-and-miss, which is typical, but children overall are engaged in the program. 

City of Lexington parks and recreation employees get ready for a game of Connect Four at Kirlevington Park during its Summer Playground Days (Spectrum News 1/Brandon Roberts)

“One day we will have about 60 between the two parks and then the next day, like this morning, we didn’t have anybody,” she said. “It just depends. The weather yesterday was like today. Some parks are just closer to more kids and if they can just walk down the street and get to it, that’s one thing, and some have to have their parents bring them and drop them off.”

Many of the Summer Playground Days’ employees are seasonal. Paul Hooper, information office supervisor for the Lexington Parks and Recreation Department, said the city is “fortunate” to not have an employee shortage, which is something that plagues municipal parks departments across the country. 

“Fortunately, we could fill pretty much all of our staff positions, which I know some other cities are not as fortunate, especially when it comes to things like aquatics and lifeguard staff,” he said. “But we were able to really find all the staff we needed, which is great.”

Hooper said one benefit the city of Lexington has in getting positions filled is the minimum wage for all Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government employees. It is $15 an hour. 

“I think that makes us fairly competitive in the marketplace, at least for people looking for a summer job,” he said. “Sometimes the people that are leading those programs or camps might be teachers during the school year, and they’re kind of wanting something fun to do during the summer and make a little extra money. Some positions are a little more than minimum wage.”

You can go to the City of Lexington's website to find out the rest of the Summer Playground Days schedule.