Every summer, my kids and their friends eagerly anticipate attending the summer camp at Holiday Park. It's not just a place where they play sports and enjoy different activities; it’s a community where they build friendships, learn valuable skills, and create memories that last a lifetime. However, the deteriorating condition of the current office building threatens this cherished environment.

We, the undersigned parents, guardians, coaches, and families of children who attend the Summer Sport Camp at Holiday Park, respectfully oppose the City's plan to demolish the camp's office building to build a pickleball court on that site.

The building is not only the summer camp office. It also serves as an office building for Parks & Recreation staff and programs throughout the rest of the year, in addition to housing the Summer Sport Camp office each summer. It is where parents check campers in and out, where staff manage the program, where emergency and medical information is kept, and where campers can take shelter during heat and storms common to South Florida summers. Removing it would disrupt year-round park operations, not just the camp, and would put children's safety at risk.

This camp means far more to our children than a place to spend the summer. Kids of all ages have made lifelong friends here, and the camp has represented Fort Lauderdale in multiple competitions, winning again and again because of how well organized and dedicated the staff are. Our children love this camp, they love the staff who run it, and they love the friends they see year after year every summer. Losing the building would take that away from them.

We are not opposed to pickleball at Holiday Park. In fact, there is a fenced, grass overflow-parking area near the Holiday Park Social Center that sits mostly empty. A single pickleball court needs only about 30 by 60 feet, a small fraction of that space. We ask the City to build the new court there, or in another underused corner of the park's 93-plus acres, instead of demolishing the camp building.

We respectfully request that the City Commission and Parks & Recreation Department:

1.  Preserve the Summer Sport Camp office building at Holiday Park and keep it in operation.

2.  Build the proposed pickleball court in the underused grass lot near the Social Center, or another site that does not impact camp facilities.

3.  Give camp families and the community a chance for public input before any final decision is made.

Thank you for your consideration and for your continued investment in Fort Lauderdale's parks. We ask that you keep our children's camp, and the building that supports it, exactly where it is.