Preparing Tomorrow’s Park Planners

As the Raleigh-Durham real estate market continues to attract attention on a national scale, Triangle park planners and recreation managers are also in high demand. Each city and town is striving to create or enhance parks, greenways and recreation resources and Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh may be America’s next great public park. Thanks to an innovative and extensive master planning process and partnerships with a variety of community stakeholders, City of Raleigh park staff are working with many members of the community including students in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management.

Developing a New Destination Park

The City of Raleigh acquired 308 acres of the Dorothea Dix Campus from the State of North Carolina in 2015 after which it leased back large portions of the campus to the State for its administrative operations of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Today, the Master Plan for Dorothea Dix Park proposes a bold vision for the future that includes a plaza and play area; restoration of historic buildings, multi-use paths, and creative events. It was the inaugural Dreamville Festival in 2019, at which 40,000 people flocked to the park to see some of the biggest stars of rap and hip-hop, that got the attention of Martha Brown, a lecturer in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM). Brown manages internship programs in the department and works closely with students to help them gain professional experiences and develop essential contacts in their field of study.

“When I saw the success of Dreamville in the news, I thought about our students and how great it would be to connect them with park planners and event organizers,” said Brown. She reached out to Joseph Voska, Programs and Operations Supervisor at Dorothea Dix Park. The two quickly agreed there could be a beneficial and long-lasting synergy by connecting students in the PRTM department with City of Raleigh park planners and municipal event organizers.

A Pause for the Pandemic

The global pandemic in 2020 put specific plans to collaborate together on hold, but Voska and Brown continued to brainstorm on how students could plan a virtual or socially safe event. Fast forward to spring semester 2021 when they decided to design PRT 458 – Special Events Planning so that students could work directly with the city to ideally plan and implement an event in the spring.

Planning and Executing a Safe and Socially-Distanced Event

Brown’s PRT 458 class had 31 students, mostly juniors and seniors, including two students joining virtually from Asia, that met online twice a week to hear speakers and work with Voska to plan a safe, socially-distanced event at Dix Park. They decided to host a family drive-in movie and the students divided themselves into focus groups that were assigned to a city or park employee that could provide clarification or direction as needed.

Most of the planning sessions were conducted virtually minus one optional site visit to the “Big Field” on February 26th during which students walked through the park  and event site.

“After visiting the park we realized that having three ingress points would mess up the field and not be a better solution,” said Christa Stansbury,” so we went back to one ingress point and kept porta potties in original locations to keep them out of the way of traffic. Visiting the site with park staff was really helpful because I was able to get a feel for the site and better understand the maps and where everything would be going.”

Originally scheduled in April 2021, the drive-in event featured the movie Coco along with local vendors. The event quickly sold out and was ultimately rescheduled to May 1st due to adverse weather.

“I am so pleased by how much the students engaged in this project,” said Voska. “From marketing to vendor management to safety, permitting and budgeting, the students planned the entire event with minimal guidance from professional liaisons in various areas. It was a great success and I look forward to working with more PRTM students in the future.”