Community center director reaches out to residents




WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers 'BALL  OF  FIRE'—Renee  Peace,  the  Oak  Park  Community Center's director, brings lots of enthusiasm and creativity to her position,  according  to  Mike Green of  the Oak Park  Recreation and Park Planning Commission.

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers ‘BALL OF FIRE’—Renee Peace, the Oak Park Community Center’s director, brings lots of enthusiasm and creativity to her position, according to Mike Green of the Oak Park Recreation and Park Planning Commission.


From the outside the Oak Park Community Center may look quiet, but there is a tremendous amount of activity and energy inside.

Fifty different programs and classes as diverse as exercise, writing, and arts and crafts are offered for all ages, tots to seniors. January will see the premiere of a new power yoga class and the expansion of a preschool from three to four days a week. The center’s large room has been reserved for parties and meetings for more than half of the weekends in 2009. Planned special events include a speaker series, three social events for teens and a communitywide summer concert and sidewalk chalk competition. Plans are underway for creating a dog park and splash zone in the adjacent Oak Canyon Park.

Attendance is up in all areas of the center, and the credit goes primarily to Renee Peace, the center’s director, for her enthusiasm and creativity, said Mike Green, who serves on the Oak Park Recreation and Park Planning Committee. Oak Park recreation activities are supervised by the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District.

“She’s just like a ball of fire. I keep saying to her, ‘When do you stop to take a break?'” Green said.

Peace is driven to reach as many residents as she can.

“We still have people who pass by, and who even live across the street, who say ‘What are you?'” Peace said. “We strive to make programs more affordable without cutting quality.”

Peace is also in charge of field maintenance in Oak Park parks and Rancho Simi’s after-school clubs and special events. She credits the center’s success to her staff, including Brian Pierce, Ascension J. Pezqueda Basulto, Kathy Pierce, Claudine Messana, Steve Van Kuelen and Jo Lassak, who has worked for the district for nearly three decades.

“We have an incredible support team,” Peace said. “It’s really great working for the district. The tools that they give us to do our job really help us to be successful.”

Peace was first hired by the Rancho Simi park district in 2003 to run classes at three sites. She was laid off due to state budget cuts then rehired after six months to run Rancho Simi’s eight afterschool clubs and special events. When Dennis Anderson, the previous director of the Oak Park Community Center retired in February 2006, Peace interviewed for the job. She was asked for her ideas for the center. She suggested concerts and movies in the park, which were being done in Simi Valley parks; enlarging the arts and crafts fair; moving the Halloween carnival from Mae Boyar Park into the community center; and creating a teen advisory council. All have been established in the 2½ years since Peace took the job.

“Renee especially has wanted to continually try new things, never resting on what they’ve already got,” said Doug Gale, park district recreation administrator. “She is a very hard worker and is open to listening to new ideas, which is wonderful.”

Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Peace attended Kennedy High School near Granada Hills, during which time she dated Brian Peace, who attended Canoga Park High. The couple eventually married and moved to Moorpark to raise two daughters, Kelsey, 14, and Jessica, 16. Peace earned a degree in radio and television from California State University Northridge. She wrote several screenplays and had parts in the television shows “General Hospital” and “The Facts of Life.”

Peace also worked as a contestant coordinator on a number of television shows which were always canceled just before summer. Having worked as a pool and lake lifeguard during junior and senior high school, Peace returned to lifeguarding at Los Angeles city pools.

She eventually took a full-time job doing promotions for aquatics and worked her way up to management. After 12 years she left for a job in Santa Barbara to oversee beach and pool lifeguards. She commuted from her home in Moorpark.

“I loved my job,” Peace said. “It was a dream job.”

But the commute became too much for her, so Peace found a job with Rancho Simi. Working at the Oak Park Community Center is the culmination of all of the recreation jobs she has held, Peace said. She often takes photographs of camps and classes in action at the center.

“I get really excited when I see the excitement on the kids’ faces. That’s what we’re all about,” Peace said. “I love the nuts and bolts of being at a recreation center. You’re always dealing with different situations.”

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