One wouldn’t think that the announcement of the City of Beacon Recreation’s new online registration and payment tool would warrant such celebration, but it is an enhancement that saves time for everyone. Several key elements of registration are now available in one place, including payment, emergency contact information, medical information, and more.

Visiting Beacon Rec headquarters is pleasant enough - driving or walking over to the Beacon Recreation Department at 23 West Center Street is always a pleasure, because one gets to see Heidi, Mark, Nate or other employees of the Beacon Rec Department. You might even run into members of Green Teen, who also have an office in the building. But if you, like many parents, are juggling a lot of to-dos, online registration relieves a measurable amount of stress - a worthy trade-off. Plus, you can always head over to the Beacon Recreation building and play at the South Street playground, sled down the hill, or shoot hoops or hit a tennis ball on the courts below.

Pre-Planning Time For Registration Cut In Half

The pre-planning to register is involved, as one needs to fill out emergency contact information for each child when registering them each quarter for the After School Program, a popular childcare program for Beacon’s elementary schools that runs from 3 to 6 pm. To keep up with the paperwork, I’ve actually made several backup emergency contact copies at home with our printer/copier, and I’ve felt quite pleased with myself for the advance prep.

“No need for that anymore,” says Nate Smith, City of Beacon Assistant Recreation Director. “Unless you change something, contact information will be the same. Pick your days of After School Program that you want to sign your children up for, and off you go.” Tuition assistance is available to qualifying families. So do inquire if you need that. Spots do fill up fast, and each quarter is a new signup even if you were already enrolled in the prior session.

For Camp at the Camp, the popular summer program from the Beacon Recreation Department, registration forms once again are involved, and this time they include medical information.” Unlike the contact info, you’ll still need to submit the medical forms each year, Nate says. “The medical forms are purged annually. The BOH requires one dated within the last year.”

Registration for Camp at the Camp opens on Monday, March 11, 2019, and last year, spaces filled up fast. With a keyboard on your side, you’ll get ahead (don’t worry, there are plenty of amazing camp options available for different schedules, themes and ages).

For the Pool Membership, this one is pretty easy. But if you put it off, as I did last year, you might miss out on the ability to have a summer pool membership, and end up limiting yourself (and your family) to the option of buying daily passes. With last year’s seemingly endless thunder rolls, which require everyone to clear the pool for 30 minutes, it can make paying for a day pass disheartening. Thunder can be such bummer if you need to leave the pool right after you paid for your family to get in, then you have to wait 30 minutes to get back in. (BTW, this thunder policy is the same at any pool, including Beacon’s River Pool and All Sport.) Tack on maybe another 30 minutes if another rumble of thunder happens. With the seasonal Pool Membership, no need to scrape together the dollars each time.

Register Here and Stay Connected

The link to register with the Beacon Recreation Department is here: https://beaconny.myrec.com/info/default.aspx

The Beacon Recreation Department is here to help if you need it: “If you have any trouble creating an account, or need assistance during this process, please stop by the Recreation Center at 23 West Center Street, Monday to Friday between 9am and 2pm and we will help you get your account set up!”

To get alerts directly from the Beacon Recreation Department, be sure you’re subscribed to their newsletter. You can subscribe to the Beacon Recreation newsletter here.