San Marino residents received the city of San Marino’s Fall Community Service Guide in their mailboxes this week.
“People look forward to receiving their guide,” said Recreation Supervisor Eddie Covarrubias. “They get excited! They want to see what’s being offered, what’s new.”
And there are a lot of new class offerings this fall season at locations all over town including Lacy Park, the recreation center, Crowell Public Library, San Marino Center and San Marino schools.
A new class in basic tennis will be available for adults.
Youth and teens will have eight new classes to choose from, including “Professor Egghead Inventors,” “Musical Theater,” “Beginner Tap Dance,” “Hip-Hop Dance,” “Coding & Robots,” “Video Game Design,” “Jurassic Dinoworld” and “Quick Start Beginner Tennis.”
New toddler class offerings include “Hip-Hop Dance,” “Beginner Tap Dance,” “Coding & Robots” and “Quick Start Beginner Tennis.”
Priority registration for San Marino residents begins on Saturday, Aug. 20 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the recreation department, formerly Stoneman Elementary School. Non-resident registration begins on Tuesday, Aug. 23. Online registration is available on the city’s website.
San Marino students will have an opportunity to try some of these new classes—plus other returning classes—at the San Marino Recreation Department’s Free Recreation Day on Wednesday, Aug. 24 at Stoneman.
“We collect the kids after school, bus them over here and then they take turns going room to room trying each different class,” said Community Services Manager Rosa Pinuelas, who noted that hot dogs and fruit will be served while students take part in five to six 15-minute “mini-sessions.”
“It’s an opportunity for them to try things out,” she added.
“There’s quite a different variety of classes,” Covarrubias said. “If parents want to sign up their children for something a little bit more academic, we do offer tutoring classes,” he noted, mentioning the “Homework Helpers” class.
For parents who have enrolled their children in the recreation department’s daycare program, Covarrubias added, “we do offer classes concurrently so that way parents can register their kids for a specific kind of class so that they can get a little bit extra than just the regular daycare.”
Many community favorites will return this season. Adults and seniors can again enroll in gentle yoga, line dancing and ballroom dancing classes at the San Marino Center and Tai Chi at Lacy Park. The department is also planning on monthly senior outings.
Popular youth classes like “Bricks 4 Kidz,” “Chess Masters” and numerous sports classes will also return to the lineup.
According to both Pinuelas and Covarrubias, recreation classes have a positive impact on the participants and the community-at-large.
“[These classes] provide an opportunity for socialization” said Pinuelas. “[They] also provide an opportunity for people to get out and learn something new and different and engage in different conversations.”
Covarrubias added, “We want the community to interact with each other and there’s no better place than these group settings. It ties everything together and makes [San Marino] a community.”
Preparation of the recreation guide, which can be found on the city’s website as well, was a team effort, Pinuelas said.
“We’re constantly evaluating what we’re doing, what we’re bringing back, how are we bringing it back, what do we need to add, what are we missing, what new thing can we do,” she said.
The fall recreation guide also includes the community newsletter and library news.
An copy of the Fall 2016 guide can be found here.
