Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-09-17
ALL Year Fairgrounds
Planned For Wilmington

Community Service of Wilmington
is preparing a campaign which will
last from September 26 TO october L..
The purpose of the campaign Is to
provide funds to be used largely in
the establishment and equipment of
all-the-year Fairgrounds for the chill
dren of the city. Mrs. T. Coleman du
Pont is president of Wilmington Com
munity Service; Mayor Leroy Har-
vey is campaign chairman. and ]. p.
Nields is general chairman.
During the war the Playground As
sociation in America was asked to
surround training centres and camps
with hospitality and recreation for
service men. This work was. done
by board known as War Camp
Community Service" The work was
so successful that after the armistice,
WAR Camp was dropped from the
name and the idea of providing hos
pitality and recreation for civilians
as well as enlisted men, was carried
out in many fields. AS Community
Service had the heritage of the ex-
perience and information OF the Play
ground Association, il feels that play
ground work and recreation is its
special field for work.
In Wilmington especially, Commu-
nifty Service is attempting to sprovid,
all-the-year Fairgrounds for all the
children, and TO carry on throughout
| the year the work done by the Park
Commission during eight weeks in
the summer. 1t is trying TO estab.
lish field houses on the grounds thai
can be used during bad weather.
start has been made in the Madison
| Playground where there is already
house and at Pine, where one fiooi
in an old building on the playground
has been prepared for meetings.
| Community Service does other worl
beside playground activities. 1t pro
yides community sings and band con
certs, maintains story telling cir
cult, supplies material and suggestion
for social gatherings everywhere, an
| conducts training classes for recrea
ton directors. In short, the bushes
of Community Service Is to sho,
| every one how to have wholesom
jolly playtime. no matter how old o
4 how young he or she is. Ii stimulate
initiative, because when the director
decide that Mr.. Blank is the very per
son to take charge of the races in
neighborhood field day, the man oftei
surprises himself by the executive abil
1 ity he develops. More than one vol
/ unteer in Community Service worl
has discovered latent talent in work
ing with and for others.
Solving Neighborhood Problems.
Just now the organization is help
| ing the various neighborhoods solv
their individual problems. Owe
| Eleventh street bridge there was nj
place for playground. william
Coyne offered a piece of land, whicl
the folks OF the community filed in
graded and cleaned up. They pur
chased equipment, put up fence an
erected fiagpole. At once a flag wa
i presented to the association, and nov
floats over the playground while
is open each day. This example s
inspired the Negro citizens of tn
ward that they likewise secured
piece of land and cleaned and equip
ped it for a playground.
At Pine there was already cit
owned playground, which had bee
operated for several years under grea
difficulty owing to the washouts dur
ing transforms. This trouble has bee
remedied in measure. The neighbor
hood there has been in need of com
munity house, which is partially me
by repairing the lower floor of an oil
, building on the grounds. The Wi
mington schools are not so cor
! structed and equipped that they ca
be used as neighborhood meetin
: places as the schools are in man
} cities. In many instances here tn
fire companies have offered the use