Park Hill Character: Fountain Of Youth
A Return To Exercise And Community At Hiawatha Davis Jr.
Story and photo by Cara DeGette
Editor, GPHN
Of all of the forced changes the pandemic brought, being denied access to neighborhood recreation centers was one of the most jarring.
It wasn’t just about the exercise — the shimmering swimming pool, the squeaky basketball court, the rhythmic clanking of machines in the weight room. It was also about the instant closing off of community, a place where people gather to socialize, to sweat a bit with their neighbors, to learn new skills in a healthy setting.
For many years, the Hiawatha Davis Jr. rec center, named after the city’s larger-than-life leader, has been a hub for good health. At the center at 33rd and Holly Street, a multitude of programs are designed for infants, older adults, and all ages in between — from youth and adult sports to arts and culture to social enrichment. Outdoor recreation programs take inner city kids to mountain parks; sewing and cooking and painting and billiard classes attract kids and adults; aquatics programs range from swim lessons to swim team to aerobics. It’s as much about the social hour as it is about the exercise.
In March, 2020, all that came to a screeching halt. For nearly a year and a half, Hiawatha Davis— and all other 28 city rec centers — was shut down, save for its meal program for kids. Many staffers were redeployed to other programs, including helping out with COVID-19 testing and vaccination centers. Other contract positions were eliminated.
Beginning this spring, Denver’s rec centers began to slowly reopen, most at reduced hours. On Sept. 7, the final four centers reopened, meaning in Park Hill, the Hiawatha Davis and Martin Luther King, Jr. facilities are now open, albeit still operating with reduced hours and building their staffs. (The MLK, Jr. center is at 39th and Newport. Other rec centers that are close to Park Hill — including the Montclair center in Lowry, Carla Madison on Colfax at York and the Central Park center east of Park Hill — have also reopened.)
It turns out that the long separation was just as hard on the staff as it was on the customers.
“In recreation we take so much pride on our interaction with the community, so going from having daily interaction to not having that luxury anymore was challenging for a lot of people,” says Jose Santistevan, recreation coordinator at Hiawatha Davis. “Everyone was looking forward to the centers reopening.”
One recent day, Santistevan sat down to talk about the challenges of the past year and a half. Joining him was Levert Whittaker, a retired rec center staffer-turned-volunteer who has been a fixture at Hiawatha Davis, and in the neighborhood, for decades. Over the years, Whittaker has held several titles: Legend, King, and his favorite: The Mayor of Park Hill. During the pandemic, Whittaker spent a lot of time hanging around his house, and walking around the neighborhood. He’s happy, he says, to be back at his regular post at the center.
“He knows the kids [in the neighborhood], and their parents, and their grandparents well,” says Santistevan. “So when he says to any [misbehaving] kids, ‘I’m going to talk to your family,’ well, that goes a long way because of his roots here in the community.”
And yes, Santistevan has one final thought for neighbors: “Let’s get you back in the door and promote good health and social engagement — you know, all that stuff that was taken for granted.”