HomeMy WebLinkAbout112625 email PT Rec CenterALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Dear Commissioners,
2026 budget cuts are around the corner, and I can imagine that making the decision to cut any budget for our town is difficult.
I hear that Port Townsend’s Rec Center is on the hypothetical chopping block for budget cuts. I’d like to try and persuade you to take our rec center out of the running.
Port Townsend prides itself on being a city that puts its community first. The rec center is the best example of community within Port Townsend.
Within the larger community of Port Townsend exists smaller communities. Our smaller pockets of community are formed by where we work, where our kids go to school, where we get our groceries,
where we work out, the library, where we volunteer, where we live, our age, if we are avid bike riders, hikers, mushroom hunters, beer connoisseurs, or what pot lucks or schwenkers
we attend. The rec center brings people from all these different pockets of community together.
It has been a safe place for our kids to hang out, a place where our families can go skating, we have been to so many jumpy house birthday parties there, the winter craft market, and
last but not least Zumba. Have you ever been to a Zumba class there?
It’s a smorgasbord of ages, demographics, and genders but more importantly it’s a community. We dance, we laugh, we celebrate, we care for one another. It’s seems silly but truly the
rec center, where we dance, skate, and celebrate is a drop in the water that creates ripples across the lake. It spreads the love by making us all happy, then sending us out into the
world more tightly knit, and more invested in our community because of the people we are actively sharing it with.
Because of the times I have spent in the rec center I have made friends, whom otherwise I would have never known. These friends have held me up when life has been hard, and laughed with
me afterwards.
I have made the rec center my emergency meeting place for my daughter and myself if we get split up at the Farmer’s Market. Not because it’s convenient but because I know she will be
safe there.
This email is becoming epically long, and I know I have made my point abundantly clear, if not redundant.
I hope this email finds you well, and I sincerely appreciate your time and all that you do for our community.
Warmly,
Sheana Livingstone