Rec Mobile offers chance for children

      At 12, Sergio Gonzalez straddled the ledge.
      He was a good person, he says, but peer pressure tugged him toward the rough pack roaming his Paradise Park Apartments complex.
      The Rec Mobile pulled him back.
      "It gave me a place to do something positive and to be positive," said Gonzalez, now 14. "If it wasn't for the Rec Mobile, I'd been running the streets, getting into trouble or maybe even worse."
      The mobile recreation program has helped thousands of at-risk youth change their lives since it was created by the county's Parks and Recreation Department in 1993. Last year, more than 85,000 children participated in the extensive program, which features arts and crafts, games, etiquette, field trips, community service, guest speakers, drug awareness and other workshops.
      The program also visits elementary schools throughout the year and has homework assistance. A monthly newsletter features stories and artwork produced by the children.
      Its four vans - Ace, Deuce, Tre and Quad - serves 13 low-income neighborhoods: eight in the Southeast and five in the Southwest.
      Parked under a patch of shade inside the Paradise Park tennis court, recreation leaders, children and parents made paper aquariums. Shabana Moten sat cross-legged, Areeba, the youngest of her four children, plopped in her lap cutting out fish.
      "My children really enjoy the activities," she said. "They get mad whenever I say its too hot or too cold for the Rec Mobile. This is great for the neighborhood."
      The Rec Mobile was born from staff in the Parks and Recreation Department's At-Risk Program who teamed with a County Commission-backed task force, law enforcement and judicial agencies to study delinquent behavior and create solutions. Ace, the first van, was introduced March 12, 1993, on the steps of the county courthouse.
      Three of the vans carry the recreational material used for arts and crafts, workshops, cooking and other projects. The fourth van is for transport, according to Kelly Woods, county Parks and Recreation's cultural programs supervisor and Rec Mobile director.
      "We've been to Red Rock and Magic Mountain," bragged 11-year-old Esmeralda Huerta as she prepared to take part in a water sponge relay at Orr Middle School, a Rec Mobile site for children from Boulevard Park Apartments. "We've also been hiking, went to Lied (Museum), the Marshmallow Factory and other places."
      Abel Mendez, 11, said his father signed him up because he watched television all day and never did his homework. H.A.T, the Homework and Tutoring component, he said, has made him a better student.
      Woods gets many requests for Rec Mobile services but is limited because of county funding and staff turnover. Of the 10 employees, eight are part time. Recreation leaders typically stay six months.
      Isaiah Springer, a program assistant for two years, said building rapport is essential to getting through to the children, some of whom have never had structure in their lives. He's seen an about face in 6-year-old Bryan Barahona. He said he learned that drugs were bad from Babes, a state Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse-funded drug awareness program using puppets.