Called “the secret weapon” of the Town of DeWitt Recreation Department by some, Brie Hall has been crucial to her team’s year-round organization of programs and events.
A resident of Jamesville and a 2004 graduate of Jamesville-DeWitt High School, Hall has grown to appreciate her locality while viewing fellow municipal employees as well as program participants and their parents as extended family. At this point, she has even met kindergartners through recreation department activities who have returned as high-school-age volunteers.
Until about the middle of this past decade, Hall worked with the Syracuse City School District as a science enrichment teacher through the Museum of Science & Technology (MOST), a basketball instructor through the Say Yes program and a supervisor of child-led play therapy through Contact Community Services.
She joined the recreation department part-time in 2012 to fill her days during the summer months, but with a turnover in staff this last year resulting from retirements and departures for different jobs, she was asked to come into the office more often.
As Hall began devoting a greater amount of time to tasks for the recreation department, she noticed to her delight that its leaders were “putting their faith in her” to bring ideas from start to fruition.
“Wherever they need me or if they give me the OK to come up with one of my ideas, I just go for it,” said Hall, who serves several capacities for the department but goes by the title of recreation aide.
She started out a decade ago by assisting with DeWitt’s Summer Day Camp, which invites kids in kindergarten through eighth grade to partake in sports, crafts, music, and experiences in nature. In recent years, that program has taken place at Jamesville Elementary, Tecumseh Elementary and the middle school on Randall Road, often depending on what building is available amid construction projects in progress.
The summer camp has also included visits from a Rochester foam dart league and a company that specializes in dunk tanks, gaga pits and inflatables. Hall has even been the one seated on the collapsible bench in said dunking booths.
“There’s always something for the kids to do,” she said. “We keep them very busy.”
Hall decided to carry her involvement into the school year rather than just the summer by lending a helping hand or two with the town’s before and after-school programs. With those programs, she and the kids have enjoyed watching movies, sledding and plenty of games.
At the David Klim Learning Center on Caton Drive, Hall has tutored children from lower-income families with limited resources as part of DeWitt’s People in Action program after school hours.
She has also pitched in with fishing derbies, holiday tree lightings, parent-child bonding events, and the Food $en$e program offered through Food Bank of Central New York that allows individuals to purchase a collection of meal items month to month for the cost of $20.50.
This fall, she pulled out all the stops setting up a large-scale Trunk or Treat in and around Heritage Landing on Butternut Drive. According to Hall, that Halloween-themed event next to the town hall drew more than 2,000 people, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and crowds of costumed kids and adults.
“What I thought was gonna be a little simple thing turned out to be huge,” she said. “It blew me away how many people were there.”
Though it was a team effort as always, Hall was instrumental in the turnout. She began by putting out feelers, emails and calls to see if residents wanted to decorate trunks in a spooky way or else show up as crafters or bakers. She then counted all the parking spaces at the site, numbered them with chalk and made a map with assigned spots to make coordination with staff easier.
“It was a lot of work, but it was worth it to see all the happy faces,” Hall said. “We got a lot of great feedback, and people can’t wait for next year.”
Knowing that tech savvy comes in handy nowadays to get the word out to the public, Hall has also done livestreaming through social media like Facebook and Instagram for the recreation department’s various events.
As a single mother of four, she also knows how home life can be stressful and how kids can sometimes fuss and fight, but she said such recreational events and programs are already fully planned outlets for families that let them have a good time and meet people outside of their routines.
“Working for DeWitt Recreation allows me to be there for my kids and also do what I love,” Hall said. “I just like doing stuff that brings people together where everybody can have a good time.”
Apart from her responsibilities with the recreation department, Hall fulfills the roles of board member, cheer coordinator and coach, and 9U football team manager for Salt City Renegades, an all-volunteer, youth-centered organization started in 2020 that uses Burnham Park in Mattydale as its home field.
At the American Youth Football & Cheer Championship in Kissimmee, Florida in December, the Renegades’ 10-and-under football team won the national championship and the varsity cheer squad ended up No. 8 in the country.
Day to day, Hall manages to balance her DeWitt rec department and Salt City Renegades responsibilities with the scholastic, musical and athletic endeavors of her four children, though two participate with the Renegades while her oldest works beside her at the recreation office. While making sure that her kids stay on the honor roll and high honor roll, Hall has also helped with science fairs and chaperoning on field trips.
“My kids are my world,” Hall said. “I work day in and day out to make sure they get to have the best life.”
