Driscoll Thanks Staff, Instructors for Successful Summer Parks Program

While other communities reduced or eliminated their summer recreational programs due to the coronavirus, Sean Driscoll went forward with his perennially popular Winthrop Summer Parks Programs.

As a result of his leadership and resiliency, a toal of 115 Winthrop youths enjoyed an outstanding summer participating in sports, arts and crafts and other outdoor activities at Ingleside and Coughlin Parks.

Sean Driscoll, who has served the town admirably as parks and recreation director for the past 21 years, has been receiving “thank yous” from grateful parents for helping their children be active this summer after months of restrictions due to the coronavirus.

Driscoll is extending his gratitude to those individuals who collaborated with him on making the Summer of 2020 one to remember in a positive way.

“I want to thank my staff from the top down for the lengthy planning process and then staying the course with us and making sure the kids had activities in Winthrop while people seemed to be canceling a lot of things,” said Driscoll. “We’re got through it pretty well and had it and I appreciative the families that registered their kids and had the faith in us that we could get something done and provide some interaction for their kids that they hadn’t had since the middle of March.

“My hat’s off to my staff and the college and high school instructors who worked for us this summer,” continued Driscoll. “They were outstanding. They knew the risks and it all worked out and we are very happy and they had a great year.”

Driscoll said he personally wanted to single out three people on his staff for their extraordinary efforts. “Without them and their extra work and putting the time in, my program doesn’t run this summer,” said Driscoll.

Sean Driscoll’s Big Three are:

Assistant Director Jill Caputo

“Jill has been with our program for 21 years and this is by far the toughest year of planning the biggest program we have in the course of the year. For her commitment and dedication and sticking with us and getting through this together was a big thing for our program and our staff.”

Program Coordinator Jimmy Carroll

“Jimmy is a former participant in the program and now he’s the program coordinator who’s brought a whole new dynamic to the programming element of things. He’s out there in the field supervising the kids’ activities, managing the counselors, running a program and trying to keep everyone in line with the social distancing guidelines. Those restrictions were tough on everyone but to get through seven weeks of it, Jimmy did a great job and it’s great for him to see the success that he’s having.”

Park Coordinator Toni Ann Boncore Titemore

“Toni Ann has been working with me for many years and she’s been a part of my organization since I’ve been here, which is 21 years now. As a teacher at the Fort Banks School now, for her to come and work with us for the summer – it would have been very easy for her to say, ‘I’m not going to do this.’

But Toni Ann really stepped up and ran a whole new program at Coughlin Park so we were able to two great supervisors at each location and spread out the participants and it was great. She has been very important to the success of the program, especially this year.”

Driscoll also thanked Kathy DelVento and her staff at the 21^st Century Learning Center for their excellent contribution to the Summer Parks Program.

“The 21^st Century was a great addition to the program,” said Driscoll.

Plans are underway for fall recreational half-day and full-day programs.