Photo Credit: Meridian, Idaho Parks and Rec.
As representatives from the original 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia late on the afternoon of July 4, 1776, to sign the Declaration of Independence, President of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, signed his name with a great flourish, saying he did it “so [England’s] King George can read that without spectacles.”
Since then, Americans have celebrated their unique shared heritage just as the second President John Adams suggested in a July 3, 1776, letter to his wife: “Pomp and parade, with shews [shows], games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this Continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”
These days, across the continent, it is easy to see (even without spectacles) that when Americans are celebrating the holiday, most parks and rec professionals are, in one way or another, working to make sure these celebrations go off without a hitch. What isn’t so easy to see is all the work that parks and rec maintenance professionals put in before, during, and after those celebrations.