One sure way to damage the growth of any program in the Chicago Park District is to keep making the program inaccessible to everyone. The boxing gym at La Follette Park continues to be closed because it has to be painted and the floor needs to be fixed. From what I've seen, the work in the gym is being done very slowly, just like the last time the room needed painting.
The Golden Gloves Tournament registration is going on, but as usual, I had no teens who were interested in training for it, let alone signing up to compete. The City-Wide Boxing Tournament, which is also coming up soon, is not a go this year, either. Henry was my best bet for having someone from the 12-years-old and under boxing class in that tournament. I can only hope that he signed up at another park district gym so Henry can have an opportunity to compete in that.
I'm never in a good mood when I show up at La Follette these days. The loss of my car on top of weather conditions (it snowed again recently) has made my commute very difficult. I have nothing to do when I arrive at work, and since I'm not one for gossip and giggling, hanging around the front desk is not something I do. It's a little too early to recruit for the spring session which begins in April. There's no information on if the work in the gym will be finished in a reasonable amount of time which seems to be a constant problem regarding maintenance issues in the park district.
I always feel that I'm in a constant mode of re-building and re-starting the boxing program despite the fact that it's been running at La Follette Park for nearly five years. I do know that the boxing program won't keep surviving setbacks like this on top of all the other issues that keep burying the program under the radar.
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