Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as the noon day light. Isaiah 58:10
It has been said that recreational activities help create a balance between academic pressures with physical and mental well-being. It enriches self-expression, inter-personal skills, physical strength, and creative expression. That could be a benefit to my constituents in Jefferson County since we neither have an indoor community center, YMCA, or Girls and Boys Club in this natural wilderness we call home.
I believe that indoor recreation is parallel to outdoor leisure pursuits. When donors step forward to assist us with the development of a community center or a public gymnasium in Jefferson County, they could be a tremendous blessing to young people and the young-at-heart. For instance, it would be a facility where kids can learn how to play musical devices such as the guitar, organ, piano, drums, and a multiplicity of brass instruments.
Moreover, science has proven indoor recreation reduces crime, isolation and loneliness, enhances emotional and social skills, bonds and keep families together; creates better understanding of cultural differences, and decreases demand for social services and costs. Shirley Braves’ in-depth research supports the notion that indoor recreation reduces stress and depression, reduces obesity, chronic diseases – diabetes, improves heart health, prevents bone disease, and ultimately increases life expectancy.
Dr. Max Butterfield, Ph.D put it this way, “we often find ourselves very stressed all the time, and so our cortisol levels are way up. For most people, the only way to de-stress is to have some form of leisure activity. Recreation can calm us down and make us healthier.
I found out there is a Japanese term ‘karoshi’ which translates literally to overwork death. People in Japan, South Korea, and China have died due to stressed induced heart attacks and strokes. Let’s not let that keep happening to citizens and visitors to Monticello-Jefferson County, Florida. If you are a person of fortune and prosperity and looking for a good tax write-off, I implore you to provide funding for a community center and or public gymnasium in our pristine rural fiscally constrained county. The choice is clear for any person with a modicum of care.
Rev. Gene Hall
Commissioner
Jefferson County, FL.
ghallboard@yahoo.com
850-321-6673