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The Power of Parks

May 20, 2025 by Mary Ann Sircely

By Angie Nagle

Earlier this month, my 5-year-old son and I visited the playground at Middletown Township Community Park. I watched as he approached the monkey bars, eager to see if he could cross them. On his first attempt, he hesitated, unsure of how to tackle the challenge ahead. On his second try, he grabbed onto the first bar and screamed with excitement. On his third attempt, another child came over and cheered him on, saying, “You can do it!” With that encouragement, he made it to the second bar. This small but transformative experience demonstrates how parks provide youth with opportunities for play, risk-taking, social connection, and confidence building.

In Bucks County, youth have access to thousands of acres of parkland managed by the County, State, and various municipalities. These spaces are complemented by a variety of programs, from structured athletic leagues to environmental education opportunities.

The Bucks County Department of Parks and Recreation offers activities at places like Churchville, Peace Valley, and Silver Lake Nature Centers, focusing on environmental education and connecting youth with nature. Additionally, the County provides swimming lessons, tennis leagues, and other recreational activities to promote physical fitness and social interaction. These programs enrich young residents’ lives by offering opportunities for growth, learning, and enjoyment.

Access to parks positively impacts youth health and well-being. The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) highlights that “children who live within two-thirds of a mile from a park with a playground are five times more likely to be a healthy weight. Time spent outside leads to higher levels of physical activity in children.”

Engaging in play at parks encourages youth to develop lifelong healthy habits. Exposure to nature lowers stress, enhances cognitive development, and fosters creativity. Social interactions in parks nurture essential life skills such as teamwork, leadership, and inclusion. By playing in inclusive environments, children build strong interpersonal skills, empathy, and confidence.

Play fosters lifelong physical health and resilience, while positive experiences in parks inspire environmental stewardship and civic engagement. Early exposure to these spaces equips youth with the skills to overcome challenges, build meaningful relationships, and thrive!

Angie Nagle

Angie Nagle serves as Executive Director of Parks and Recreation for Bucks County. She is a leader in the field of community recreation with 20 years of professional experience. She is a fierce advocate for the benefits that parks and recreation provide to our communities and intent on increasing access to those opportunities for all.

In her role, Angie oversees the third largest County Park system in the state of Pennsylvania. The park system includes 9,000+ acres of parkland, recreation facilities, environmental education centers, historic resources, a horse park and an airport.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Temple University in Sport and Recreation Management as well as a Master of Education degree in Sport and Recreation Administration. She is a Certified Parks and Recreation Executive and Certified Pool Operator.

Angie is an active member of the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), National Association of County Park and Recreation Officials (NACPRO), Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society (PRPS) and Bucks County Recreation Council (BCRC).

She resides in Middletown Township, Bucks County with her husband, AJ and their three sons.

Spirit Days Promote Drug-Free and Bully-Free Lives

December 20, 2024 by Mary Ann Sircely

At Hoover Elementary School

By Stephanie Pawlak

At Hoover Elementary, Hoover Hawks participated in spirit days to promote the overarching themes of Red Ribbon Week – encouraging students to live drug-free and bully-free lives! Each spirit day was paired with a giveaway sponsored by our School Counselors, the Council of Southeast Pennsylvania and the Neshaminy Coalition for Youth.

Red Ribbon Week, which takes place annually from October 23 through October 31, inspires our kids to be happy, brave and drug-free. The national program is organized by National Family Partnership, a leader in drug prevention, education and advocacy.

In their classrooms throughout the month of October, students learned more about what bullying is, how to deal with a bully, and how to be an upstander if they see someone else being bullied. Classes spread their best advice on how to “Be a Buddy, NOT a Boo-lly” through “Ghost Grams” which were delivered to a neighboring classroom.

The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania and the Neshaminy Coalition for Youth also sponsored the Plant the Promise Initiative during Red Ribbon Week. Master Gardeners consulted with Ms. Headley and her student volunteers to plant tulips around the building to represent the promise of a healthy, drug-free lifestyle. Be sure to visit this blog in the spring to see photos of the beautiful tulips in bloom!

In addition, students across grades K-4 competed in a poster contest during our Halloween Parade. Classrooms were tasked with creating a poster to both introduce their class for the parade, as well as promote living a drug-free or bully-free life.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Stephanie Pawlak

Stephanie Pawlak is a School Counselor at Hoover Elementary School.

Why Grow Your Own With Your Kids?

November 11, 2024 by Mary Ann Sircely

By Marion Mass, M.D.

I don’t want to write about the obvious benefits of getting your kids to help you grow organic produce: It tastes better, less pesticide exposure, sense of responsibility, sense of accomplishment. It’s the things I never expected to learn after growing produce with our children and their friends for over a decade that I would like to share with you.

Growing produce with kids fosters common sense. You can’t buy it at the world’s best universities! Neither of my parents went to college. So I had a little of the “do I belong here?” feeling in my first weeks at a top tier medical school. It went away.

A little common sense can carry you through many a challenge, but how do you help your kids get it? One way is by cultivating an appreciation for the natural world. As we continue to morph into an increasingly techno-rich world, we need to hold on to common sense!

You’re also fostering observational skills and curiosity. My then 8-year-old son and I were out in the garden during one of the early years. The whole top of a tomato plant had been gnawed back. “Stupid deer,” I muttered. But my son was looking at the ground below the chewed leaves. “What is this stuff?” he asked, “It looks like tiny animal droppings.” He began to look above those droppings, and found a 3-inch tomato-leaf-colored tomato hornworm (our first introduction to the culprit) camouflaged in plain sight.

He went to go read all about hornworms, and together we protected our crop by waiting until a beneficial wasp laid her eggs on the hornworm. The resultant larvae were predators of the hornworm and became adult egg-laying wasps themselves. Couldn’t have fixed the problem without my son’s curiosity.

Getting dirty is beneficial!

Gardening families have higher gut microbial diversity than non-gardening families. Research on the gut microbiome is getting some well-deserved attention, as a healthy gut microbiome has been shown to have beneficial effects on digestion, the immune system, metabolic functions, mental health and more.

It has also been hypothesized that one of the reasons that kids who grow up on farms have lower rates of asthma, food allergies and seasonal allergies is their exposure to dirt. (It’s nice to know that SOMEONE has lower rates!) It’s called the hygiene hypothesis. The arm of the immune system that responds to parasites (commonly found in the soil) is partly responsible for the allergic and asthma response pathways. The increasing lack of exposure to parasites has this part of the immune system ready to respond to other issues, such as environmental allergens, etc. Keep in mind, it still is a good (common-sense) idea to wash off your hands after gardening. Aim for exposure, not ingestion!

When you grow organic produce with your kids, they will try and eat more vegetables. Even the ones they think they hate. When our daughter and her friends grew and sold produce from our garden for a cancer charity, several of the girls started eating vegetables they had previously pushed away.

Gardening is a great time for communication, especially with the pre-teen/teen crowd. We all hear that advice: Talk to your kids in the car. There is something about the time spent pulling beets and picking beans that doesn’t feel like an interrogation to them and they talk. When they are searching for ripe peppers, they relax, let down their guard and open up.

Do you need any more reasons? It really is easier than you think! Start small … a window box, a 4 x 4 plot. Expand as you become comfortable with gardening. Start planning now by gathering advice from blogs, websites, books local gardening clubs and extensions. You will reap more benefits than an armload of beautiful produce!

Marion Mass, M.D.

Dr. Marion Mass is Co-Founder of Practicing Physicians of America, a member of Free2Care leadership, board member of the Bucks County Health Improvement Partnership, on the editorial board for the Bucks County Courier Times and Doylestown Intel, and a delegate to The Pennsylvania Medical Society.