Valleywide : Sign-Ups to Begin for Recreation Programs

Registration begins next week for many city recreation programs offered throughout the San Fernando Valley.

Hundreds of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department courses are scheduled at recreation centers Valleywide. Despite recurring budget problems, several sites have actually managed to expand their course offerings, Olga Singer, principal recreation supervisor, said.

For the first time, Chatsworth Park provides aikido and aerobics classes this fall, for example, while Granada Hills Recreation Center is offering doll-making and craft courses. Van Nuys Recreation Center has scheduled model-building and computer classes.

“It’s a strange thing,” Singer said. “No matter how much we get cut, we always manage to get through.”

Centers are still providing a number of longtime popular courses, ranging from peewee karate, cooking and cheerleading for children to ice skating, horseback riding and martial arts for youth to basketball, tennis and flag football for adults. The centers have coped with many of the cuts by charging registration fees that cover the entire cost of the class, recreation officials said.

“Most of our programs are now self-sustaining,” Chatsworth Park Director Paul Myers said. “The budget cuts have hurt us, there’s no doubt about it. It’s the attendance [in individual courses] that determines whether we are fully up and running.”

Mason and Chatsworth parks have joined forces for a Sept. 18 golf tournament to be held in Simi Valley that organizers hope will raise about $5,000 for their programs.

More information and class schedules are available by contacting recreation centers in individual communities.

“You mention ‘em, we got ‘em,” Singer said. “Somehow or another, we always manage to keep it going.”