Parks and Rec

KATIE CARUS-CHILDERS, longtime town of Wrightsville Beach parks and recreation director, did not initially plan to enter the parks and recreation field.

Earlier in her career, she worked for Atlantic Richfield Company and then spent fifteen years as a stay-at-home mother for her three children, a role that she still calls “the best job I ever had.”

In 2002, Carus-Childers was ready to reenter the paid workforce. She answered a classified ad in the StarNews for an administrative assistant for Wrightsville Beach Parks and Rec, thinking the job “sounded fun” and that the role’s administrative and organizational tasks mirrored the work she had done previously as a community volunteer.

After four years as the department’s administrative assistant, she was promoted to her current role as director. In this position, she oversees everything that falls under the broad umbrella of the Parks and Rec department, from planning programming to managing a range of special events. Every fitness class, sports league, youth camp, farmers market, or event on the department’s packed calendar is planned and organized by Carus-Childers with support from administrative support specialist KRIS THOMPSON.

When asked about her favorite thing about working for Parks and Rec, she notes the positive environment and the general good mood of the people who use their services. “If you’re coming to do something for recreation, you’re happy. This isn’t the parking office,” she says.

A big part of her current job is managing the Wrightsville Beach Farmers Market, which runs every Monday morning from May through December. Located on the softball field of the Wrightsville Beach Park, the farmers market features a rotating list of nearly seventy vendors selling everything from fresh, locally-grown produce and baked goods to plants, flowers, and arts and crafts.

She handles all of the behind-the-scenes work to make the farmers market run efficiently, such as managing vendor applications and conducting vendor site visits. On market day, you can often find her on-site, roaming about, talking to vendors and visitors.

“I enjoy getting to know them,” she says of the vendors. “The market is a gathering of the community. It’s fun to go out there and see Wrightsville Beach residents and new people.”

The farmers market’s history traces back to former Wrightsville Beach alderman LISA WEEKS, who proposed starting the weekly seasonal event to the town’s board of aldermen. In the first farmers market season in 2009, the market opened on Old Causeway Drive with fifteen vendors, and it has grown exponentially since then.

“The farmers market was established to offer local artisans and farms and producers an opportunity to sell their products and give the community a place to purchase fresh, local produce,” Carus-Childers says.

The only farmers market on the island, the Monday morning event is popular with local residents and visitors. As many as 2,000 people have visited the weekly event, Carus-Childers says, and the average number of people who attend is about 1,400 each week.

Additionally, she oversees a wide range of Parks and Rec annual events, including organizing logistics and selling sponsorships. For example, she manages Wrightsville Beach Concerts in the Park, the weekly free concert series held each June and July at Wrightsville Beach Park. Other annual events that she manages include Bark in Park, Movies in the Park, and the Tree Lighting Ceremony.

Carus-Childers says she is currently working on the five-year update to the town’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan, which surveys residents about their interests for new programming and events. Previous master plan survey results have led Parks and Rec to add new pickleball courts and specific fitness classes such as the popular tai chi class, among other new additions.

Carus-Childers moved to Wilmington with her family from Redondo Beach, California, in 1991. “While we enjoyed being on the coast, we were starting to feel that California was really crowded,” she says. She was drawn to Wilmington because she had extended family living here, and she had vacationed in the area previously.

Outside of work, she spends her time with her family, including her husband, her two adult daughters who live in Wilmington, and her son who lives in Asheville. “My oldest daughter and her husband have four children, and I just can’t get enough of them. I also enjoy my early morning workouts at the gym,” she says.

She plans to retire in the near future, at which point she says she’ll spend her time “helping chauffeur my four grandchildren to and from school and all of their extracurricular activities,” she says. “And I may switch my 6 a.m. exercise routine to a more reasonable hour.”

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