Duane Peterson sets chairs in place on the floor for exhibitor booths for the Arts and Crafts Festival at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. Peterson is the Lawrence Parks and Recreation special events supervisor.

Duane Peterson, the longtime Lawrence Parks and Recreation special events supervisor, understandably looked a little tired.

Up at 6 a.m. helping set up the sixth annual Spring Arts & Crafts Fair on a recent Saturday morning, he’s on his way to check in on the youth basketball program at South Junior High School.

After making sure everything’s on track, he’ll shoot over to Holcom Park Recreation Center to look in on the youth indoor soccer games. Then he’s off to the East Lawrence Center for another indoor soccer program before heading back to the fair. Peterson’s estimated clockout time: 7 p.m.

And that’s his off day.

Peterson, who has worked for Lawrence Parks and Recreation for 18 years, is an example of a dedicated civil servant who makes Lawrence run on a daily basis, said Ernie Shaw, acting director of Lawrence Parks and Recreation, who hired Peterson and has worked with him for nearly two decades.

“He’s always willing to help out,” Shaw said. “He takes more nights away from himself.”

The Topeka native has always had a passion for sports, including his football days at Hutchinson Community College. He’s transferred that love to a career and said the extra time and energy he puts into the job is worth it.

“It’s a great job,” Peterson said. “There’s always a new challenge every day.”

And after all these years, some of the best moments for him is when kids he worked with in various youth programs — now adults — stop by to enroll their own kids.

“People come up and thank you for what you’ve done in the past,” Peterson said.

It’s a past that includes working with thousands of youth and adults who’ve participated in a wide range of programs — everything from “Breakfast with Santa” to the summer concert series to the summer playground group.

Peterson spent several years working in parks and recreation in Texas after graduating from Emporia State University. He then brought his wife and three sons — now 28, 30, and 31 — to Lawrence and made the area his home.

Peterson said he takes pride in helping create and preserve what he calls some of the “Lawrence traditions.”

In times of tight city and government budgets, Peterson said potential cuts to parks and recreation programs are always a looming possibility, but Lawrence is a town that values the work he and his staff perform.

“We are a core service in this town,” he said.

Without the summer programs and year-round events his department oversees, “there wouldn’t be anything for the kids,” Peterson said.