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East Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation Director Fred Bunn displays photos of newly redesigned Reeds Lake Park.

   Music from a brass band floats through the flower-filled park and across the adjoining lake, where children taking lessons pilot small white sailboats. The vessels crisscross the sparkling water as families carrying blankets, babies and picnic baskets stream into the park to hear the free evening concert.
   While residents enjoy this Norman Rockwell-like scene, two Ferris Recreation and Leadership Management graduates are the behind-the-curtain wizards who create the activities so appreciated by residents. Susan Perry (EHS’90) and Fred Bunn (EHS’87) are assistant director and director, respectively, of the East Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation department.
   Like good hosts who make entertaining look effortless, there is far more work than any of the concert-goers suspect put in behind the scenes by the Parks and Recreation folks.
   “Our staff listened to 70 audition tapes to choose the band playing tonight,” Bunn says cheerfully. The staff of nine also supervises safety, parking, restrooms, landscaping and publicity – even the design of the park itself.
   “When we redesigned the park recently, we made the walkways around the park so people with disabilities can enjoy it. There are places for picnics, a bandstand for concerts, and piers out into the water so people could access the lakefront,” says Bunn, as families launch boats, bring their dogs to swim, and regretfully obey reminders not to feed the ever-hopeful flocks of ducks and geese.
   While a career in Recreation Leadership and Management may sound like being paid to play, Bunn and Perry are busiest on evenings and weekends when everyone else really is playing.

Saturday in the Park
   At 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning, Perry is organizing the delivery of bike racks in the pre-dawn darkness for hundreds of triathaletes who will arrive in three hours. By then the sidewalks will be packed with families waiting to watch the athletes plunge into the lake for a half-mile swim, then slog out to hop on bikes for an 18-mile ride, followed by running five miles through the neighborhoods around the lake.
   Perry is race director for both the annual Reeds Lake Run and the Reeds Lake Triathlon, mammoth events that involve blocking off major roads, organizing armies of volunteers, and seeing to safety, police coverage, publicity, registration and a myriad of other details.
   “The triathlon is an amazing event,” Perry says. “The participants are particularly appreciative of our efforts. They thank volunteers even as they’re out competing!”
   “Susan does a great job with the event. It’s known as one of the most well-organized triathlons, which is a huge compliment,” Bunn says.
   While many West Michigan residents are familiar with the Reeds Lake Run and the Reeds Lake Triathlon, they are just the crest of a tsunami of events managed by these two. “Because of our beautiful setting, everyone wants to hold their fundraising athletic events here,” Bunn says.
   East Grand Rapids has more high school sports championships than any town its size in the country, and the recreation sports schedule Bunn oversees is just as super-charged as the school sports programs. EGRPR also keeps watch over the city pools, the public sports facilities and school grounds. If that weren’t enough, the department oversees adult and children’s programs, which involves everything from hiring teachers for “Mom and Me Stamping” to organizing “Halloween Hoot” to keep children safe.
   And then there’s “Safety Town” set up on the high-school track in the center of town each summer where four-to-six-year-olds earnestly peddle big-wheelers through the maze of a child-size village, complete with road signs. The road and pedestrian safety course from which young motorists “graduate” is one of the most popular programs the Parks and Recreation department offers.
East Grand Rapids residents happy with the quality of their recreation activities are benefiting from the efforts of the cream of the Ferris crop. Both Perry and Bunn have won the College of Education and Human Services Distinguished Alumni award. They were chosen for their participation as members of the RLM Academic Advisory Committee.
   “We want to give back something in return for the benefits of our education,” says Perry. Each year she and Bunn participate in RLM portfolio review, which gives students valuable business interviewing experience.
   “When I interviewed for my first internship, I almost didn’t get hired,” Bunn says. “They told me my training and skills were great, but I was too quiet in the interview. So I know how important it is to be prepared.”

In the Long Run

Susan Perry displays a poster (developed by Ferris Visual Design students) for the popular Reeds Lake Run.