FARMINGTON – When Aaron Keegan started as assistant recreation director, his impressions of the job were totally different than what it was about.

Now he and his wife, Lindsay Fields Keegan, formerly of Jay, are moving to Tennessee.

“I thought I’d be able to come in and hang out with the kids and maybe do some programs,” said Keegan, 26, a University of Maine at Farmington 2000 graduate. He has a degree in geography.

Keegan was hired as Farmington’s assistant parks and recreation director in 2001 under the guidance of Director Steve Shible.

What he envisioned was only a small part of the job.

He has since learned managerial skills, as well as some custodial skills.

He has been fortunate, he said, to direct two different basketball programs

“In the three years I’ve worked with Steve, he really let me take on some responsibility of the recreation program,” Keegan said.

Among programs he supervised were swimming, the skating rink and the teen center.

Keegan said Shible made sure there were structured activities for kids visiting the Community Center.

The numbers have increased, Keegan said, since he started. There used to be three or four kids who would come in after school but after February 2002, the numbers increased to about 50 a day.

There are four computers at the center for kids to play games or do homework, a television with surround sound, exercise such as basketball, indoor soccer, a batting cage and more.

“This has been a huge learning experience,” Keegan said, “being able to budget your time effectively. Basically, from 2 to 5 your in supervision mode. Steve and I can hardly get any computer work or telephone work done then. We have a phone line basically so kids can phone home to talk to parents.”

Keegan is hoping to stay in recreation when he and his wife move to Memphis near her family.

He’s also put in applications to teach at private schools. His wife has a job with the Shelby County school system. She graduates from the University of Maine at Orono with her masters in speech pathology this weekend.

It will be a change of lifestyle for the Keegans as they go from a smaller community of about 7,400 people to one with 50,000 to 60,000 people.

“I’m looking forward to the change,” Keegan said. “It’s bittersweet to leave here. I love this atmosphere. I love the kids I work with here on a daily basis.”

He enjoys the public relations and the sports-oriented opportunities, he said.

“On the other hand, Lindsay and I are a young married couple … and we’d like to experience something a little more fast paced until that time family is more of a priority,” he said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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