This past Saturday, the Oakland Parks and Recreation department celebrated its 100 year anniversary at DeFremery Park. I work at DeFremery Pool, right behind the park, so we were also part of the celebration. We opened the pool for six hours for free, offered a variety of games all day, and had me in a dunk tank.

Improving community relations is one of the main missions of the pool. We allow people to come in, see what we are offering, and have them use our services. My main reason for working at the pool is to help keep the youth off the streets, to give them a place to call a home away from home. Seeing our pool full of people, to near capacity, was a good feeling. A lot of our swim team kids were there enjoying their time, especially after coming off a huge win earlier in the day during a swim meet.

To many, the 100 year anniversary of OPR—as we call it—was just a day. For the staff and kids, it meant 100 years of promises kept -- of keeping true to an option for a better life than what some are actually given.