As a teen, Jim Kamps spent hours with his father, then park manger of the Hinckley Reservation, farming hay from the top of Whipp’s Ledges for the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. It planted a seed in Kamps to start a Metroparks career. His first gig was grunt work: picking up trash and cleaning toilets at the Brecksville Reservation in 1983. Thirty-four years later, he’s the system’s director of parks in charge of six reservations including the majority of the lakefront reservation, which was acquired in 2013. “We see a lot more people coming to the lakefront,” he says. Kamps captains daily operations for the system that started 100 years ago with a mere 3 acres in the Rocky River Valley and now includes 18 reservations, eight scenic golf courses, more than 23,000 acres and a list of daily family-friendly activities that no calendar could hold. The Metroparks celebrates all of that growth with a July 22 Edgewater Park beach party complete with fireworks. For Kamps, he continues to appreciate Mother Nature’s bountiful offerings. “People can leave whatever problems they have at home or work and … just reboot themselves,” he says.
clevelandmetroparks.com
Reconnect With Nature As The Cleveland Metroparks Turns 100
One of the most tenured employees reflects on the growing park system.
