By Mary Lackie

After a few women started telephoning and writing letters, they caused a splash in the Lynnwood Park summer recreation program.

Their concern was a modified “Summer Campers” program conducted during the mornings on the Lynnwood Park school grounds for children ages seven to 14 years old. The women banded together 15 churches early in May to form Concerned Churches--Lynnwood.

“Our church affiliation hasn’t been a part of it, we’ve just been working together,” said Mrs. Walter M. Thomas, treasurer. The group raised funds to take about 70 children swimming at a North Fulton pool - a weekly highlight of the minimal recreation program. The children were provided a noontime snack by the church women before they boarded the bus for the pool.

Three times this summer there was no bus transportation, although the children were all set to go swimming. “Of course the children were disappointed, but they took it like ladies and gentlemen. When you have 70 children, you’ve got something. But the children were wonderful,” said Mrs. Thomas.

Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. R. L. Stephens, swimming coordinator, made repeated trips shuttling the children to Chastain park for their two-hour swim program one week when they learned at the last minute that bus arrangements would not be provided. “Driving home, the kids sang popular songs, and then Sunday school songs, “God Loves All the Children of the World,” and “Jesus Loves Me,” Mrs. Thomas commented.

“We’ve had some set backs, but I have never seen children so eager to learn. My only swimming ability is that I like children. They have made so much progress. Some of them were so afraid of the water they cried the first few times. A few weeks ago, they couldn’t swim and now they want to go off the diving board,” Mrs. Stephens said.

“When we realized the first week that only three of the 67 children were able to handle themselves in the water over their heads, the volunteer swimming aides began coming to help us. It was a happy experience for the teen-agers to share their know-how with children who had no swimming experience,” said Mrs. Fred Rossman.

Mrs. Rossman has had experience with the DeKalb County recreation department since Concerned Churches-Lynnwood organized in May. She said, “DeKalb County, per capita the fifth wealthiest county in the U.S., seems to follow a policy of willful exclusion of poor people from its recreational facilities, by locating pools and tennis courts in relatively affluent neighborhoods and by charging high fees for their use. The only hope for DeKalb’s poor people seems to be through the churches whose responsibility it becomes to see that the local government provides a climate of cooperation in which concerned people can work effectively.”

The summer program concludes this week with a trip to Grant Park. Concerned Churches-Lynnwood will provide transportation and a picnic for the children. “But this isn’t a one shot program. We hope to start work on a year-round recreation program in Lynnwood for people of all ages,” Mrs. Stephens said.

Concerned Churches-Lynnwood is supported by the following groups located in an area within a few miles of the Negro community: Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church, Peachtree Road Lutheran, the Church of St. Jude, Our Lady of the Assumption, St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal, Brookhaven Christian Church, Church of the Holy Spirit, Providence Presbyterian Church, Brookhaven Baptist Church, St. James Methodist Church, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal, Brookhaven Methodist Church, Dunwoody Methodist Church, United Churchwomen of DeKalb and the Church of Immaculate Heart of Mary.