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Haat Hai os
Ane CITY OF ATLANTA
| a i. DEPARTMENT of PARKS
i ea i ot i Office of General Manager
sui) ul is p Atlanta, Georgia 30303
JACK Cc. DELIUS
GENERAL MANAGER
TO; Mayor Ivan Allen .
FROM: Mr. Tom Christenson, Director, "Operation Champ"
SUBJECT: Program of "Operation Champ"
Atlantats "Operation Champ", sponsored jointly by Atlanta
Parks and Recreation Department and the Economic Opportunity,
Atlanta, is a sports and cultural program provided for locations .
in twenty-three crime infested and racial trouble areas. The
ideal of the program is to aid the children to develop social
soundness, emotional stability, cultural interest, and physical
fitness. “In addition the aim is to curtail indirectly the high
crime rate and racial tension. This ideal is approached by
providing supervised recreation and cultural trips for the areas,
The program is headed by a project director and assistant who
coordinate the activities of the 23 areas and plan all cultural and
swimming trips. Four program supervisors directly supervise the
23 areas which are divided into four general districts in the city.
They act as go-betweens between the project director am the area
counselors. Each area has two recreation leaders who work as
counselors in the individual area and kéep the area supervised
Monday through Saturday from 10:00 A. M. to 9 P. M.
The individual area activities include mass games, individual
instructional games, arts and crafts, dramatic s_ganss » ine folk
dancing, rhythmical games, group singing, and a variety of other
activities, depending on the individual talents of the recreational
supervisors. Many areas work closely with the Girl Scouts and the
Boy Scouts in an attempt to establish new troops that will continue
through the year. Special area events such as bicycle rodeos,
pet shows, and treasure hunts encourage the children to develop
a feeling of fellowship. The children should enjoy the afternoon
snack of milk and cookies delivered daily.
Because of the tremendous cooperation and the donation of
time by many people, a variety of educational trips has been planned
for the areas. Each area goes for a "free" swim twice a week for
six weeks. Many of our children will receive free bowling lessons
from city establishments. The Atlanta Braves and Chiefs cooperate
with us by presenting periodical sports clinics and providing
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Mayor Ivan Allen =pe June 7, Lay
unlimited tickets to both Brave and Chief ball games. Our children
will hear’ lectures by the curator of the zoo, the Atlanta Horti-
culturist, and our Entomologist. New ideas and projects will be
followed up by the area leaders through activities such as transplant-
ing flowers in the housing projects, collecting and mounting insects,
identifying trees and birds,
The children will travel to various local industries, amuse-
ment parks and local entertainments including the Coca Cola
Bottling Company, Mathis Dairy, the Atlanta Journal, Chastain
Park, children's theaters, Cyclorama and Grant Park Zoo, and
Grant Park green house. On many of the trips the children
will be provided with a hot lunch, Hopefully the many experiences
created by the cultural trips will add greatly to the under-
privileged children's education,
"Operation Champ" undoubtedly will not solve all of the
problems of the high-crime rate, underprivileged areas, But
through our personnel's combined efforts to provide supervised
recreation and cultural trips, we hope to benefit the background
of some of these children,
Respectfully submitted,
Pol hs gaia
Tom Christenson
Director
Operation Champ
TC/ch
ence
cc; Mr, Jack Delius, General Manager
City of Atlanta Department of Parks
Miss Virginia Carmichael, Director
City of Atlanta Department of Recreation