Older Workers Are a Growing Force in Managing Cleveland's Public Parks

By Debra E. Blum

Michael McCormick learned about responsibility during his 42-year career printing Cleveland's

ALSO SEE: ARTICLE: Nonprofit Groups Lag in Recruiting Older Workers, Report Says ARTICLE: Making a Second Career Out of Helping Others Find Second Careers ARTICLE: In Need of Help, Medical Center Offers Flexible Hours to Woo Older Workers ARTICLE: Putting Older Americans to Work for Good Causes: Award Winners ARTICLE: Older People Provide Aid to Nursing-Home Residents ARTICLE: The Transition From 'Golden Years' to 'Encore Careers': a Book Preview

daily newspaper.

"We had deadlines to get the paper out on time," says Mr. McCormick, who worked as a pressman and a supervisor for The Plain Dealer. "I learned how to make hard decisions."

Mr. McCormick says he faces fewer tough decisions in his new job, yet he still draws on his long experience.

He oversees 15 volunteers who monitor hiking and biking trails in Cleveland's public parks. He selects, trains, and schedules the volunteers, and is sometimes out on the trails himself ensuring proper coverage.

Mr. McCormick, 69, is one of a growing number of older employees of Cleveland Metroparks, which manages more than 20,000 acres of public parkland in the city, including recreational trails, golf courses, and a zoo. About four out of every 10 park employees are 50 or older, up from about one-quarter less than three years ago. Many of them are retired from other careers and are working at part-time or seasonal posts.

In 2004, Cleveland Metroparks won a $49,000 grant from the Cleveland Foundation to start a program called Older Workers Leading Success, or OWLS. Its aim is to recruit and retain paid employees and volunteers who are at least 50 — a growing population in the Cleveland area.

"With OWLS we increase our talent pool," says Diane O. McDaniel, Cleveland Metroparks' director of human resources. "Older workers have a wide range of experience and they are often more flexible. It fits our needs."

Much of the park work, she says, is seasonal, but does not jibe with the traditional school calendar. Most students, for example, can work during summer vacation time only, and may not be around when the park still needs full staffing in the warmer spring and autumn months.

Mixing older and younger workers also has its perks, Ms. McDaniel says. Older workers who have had other job experiences and successful careers elsewhere can be good role models, she says, and the younger workers can share their energy, enthusiasm, and different perspectives with older staff members.

The OWLS program seeks to offer guidance to young people by linking older employees with high-school students who do summer work in the park system.

Start-Up Expenses

The foundation money helped get the OWLS program going, covering start-up costs such as job fairs for older workers. But the program is now paid for by the parks district itself, which gets its money from local governments and fees that it charges for its services.

The older employees work in an array of jobs, including taking care of administrative duties, guest services, and ground maintenance, and are considered part of the regular work force.

Along with the paid positions, Cleveland Metroparks opened up a number of unpaid slots for older volunteers.

Now, most of the park system's 110 trail monitors are older than 50.

Trained in CPR and first aid, the monitors walk or bike along the trails, acting as hosts, guides, and helping hands to the parks' visitors.

Mr. McCormick is one of the coordinators of the monitors, a part-time job that pays him $8,000 a year. Previously he had volunteered in the parks, mostly as a guide at the area's historic canal. He still takes time out to run tours of the canal.

"I like the volunteering part and I like the paying-job part," Mr. McCormick says. "I like being involved, having value, and not feeling like I've been put out to pasture."