By Ken Chaisson
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
Lauren Gordon started as the Recreation Director for the Town of Walpole in the first week of July 2025. She hit the ground running with the Independence Day fireworks, the opening of town pools and summer camps.
The Rec Department manages over 150 programs for all ages ranging from boxing to needle felting, from a sea glass workshop to tai chi and from rock climbing to music. They also manage any Blackburn Hall and the old Johnson Middle School rentals. They also coordinate reservations and maintenance for the 28 playing fields in Walpole.
Community engagement is what drives Gordon; meeting families at programs, asking for their input and offering more for them. The sense of community is a key characteristic of successful, active and engaged towns where members contribute on a regular basis.
The Rec Department currently has a balanced mix of staff who live inside and outside Walpole. This enables them to know what the town needs combined with some fresh perspectives from other locales.
Walpole collaborates with towns like Norfolk (archery) and local small businesses (karate, Run House, music class, cake decorating, yoga, etc.) to execute a wide variety of program offerings.
The Rec Department is always evolving. This winter they will be talking with the school department to investigate after school programs. They continually converse with the Council of Aging (COA). New sports like flag football are looking for field time.
The Rec Department is a feeder program for youth sports. Their programs geared for young children are designed to be an entry point into an activity which are fun, engaging and affordable. The programs are meant to expose young children to a wide variety of activities and not to be focused on the highly technical details of that sport. The program leaders try to build the love of an activity before introducing a more competitive environment.
The programs also give many teenagers an opportunity for their first job doing something they love.
The offerings are opportunities for parents to meet other parents who they will be mingling with for the next 12 years of schooling.
There are scholarship programs available for qualified candidates.
Gordon’s biggest challenge has been learning the field management model. They meet quarterly with the sports organizations in town as well as stay in close contact with the Parks Department and the Athletic Director at the high school, Dave St. Martin.
Some of Gordon’s goals are offering deeper and more diverse programs in a sustainable way with proper staffing by qualified, available teachers. There are renovations planned for both floors in Blackburn Hall.
To grow the number of programs requires ideas, teachers, facilities and enough enrollment to make it worthwhile for a 3rd party vendor. Archery is a great recent example. There were sixteen enrollees including adults and children in the class with positive reviews.
Halloween on Main was a big event this fall with hundreds of attendees. As one participant mentioned, “I just love this event. It’s like living in a Hallmark movie.’
