the friday letter | april 19, 2013
DESCRIPTION
The MCPRD Friday LetterTRANSCRIPT
In The News:
Park and Rec Hosts Free
Golf Classic for Veterans
and Active Duty Military
All military veterans
(including National Guard
and Reserves) and active
duty military personnel are
invited to sign-up to play in
the 8th annual Veterans &
Reservists Golf Classic at
Sunset Hills Golf Course,
800 Radio Road, on June 27,
2013. This event features a
free round of golf on a fine
course plus lunch provided
by Texas Land & Cattle
Steak House at no charge
for those who qualify to
play.
The Golf Classic is pre-
sented by Mecklenburg
County Park and Recreation
Department and Mecklen-
burg County Community
Support Services-Veterans
Services Division to show
appreciation to men and
women who serve and have
served our country in the
armed forces.
Park and Recreation— Leadership Academy
this issue
Park News P.1
Enterprise Services P.2
Nature Preserves & Natural Resources P.2
Community & Recreation Center Services P.4
V o l u m e 2 I S S U E
A p r i l 1 9 2 0 1 3
14 WEEKLY
NEWSLETTER OF THE
PARK AND RECREATION
DEPARTMENT FridayFridayLetterLetter THE
Leadership Academy—Class of 2014 Training Highlights This week the Parks and Recreation Leadership Acad-emy toured several facilities and parks as apart of their coursework. The course in-structors were James Alsop, Lola Massed and Greg Clemmer. With close to 50 years of experience, the in-structors gave the class a glimpse of our Departmen-tal Focus, Customer Service driven philosophies and Management with "boots on the ground".
The group toured; Freedom Park, The Aquatic Center, Independence Park, Memorial Stadium, The Little Sugar Creek Greenway, St Mary's Chapel, Marion Diehl Recreation Center and Park Road Park. From Athletics to Senior programs, from Therapeutic ser-vices and Special events, the class got a chance to see how it all comes together. The course work included history of specific parks, serving demographics, community partnership and teamwork through planning. Our national recognition is well deserve! Everyday, at every park and every facility, there is something going on of which citizens of Mecklenburg County can be proud. A special thanks to our host sights and their staff. And hats off to Lola, Greg and James! Continued on Page 2
Grady Cole & American Legion Memorial Stadium Adult Athletics Basketball: Sunday, April 21st the Women’s Basketball League will begin league play at the Tuckaseegee Recreation Center. The Men’s 30 and Over will begin playoffs next Sunday, April 28 at the Bette Rae Cen-ter. The Men’s B- Basketball league is currently playing at Grady Cole and Hickory Grove Recreation Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Softball Spring softball league games are played at Renaissance and Nevin Park, Mon-day through Thursday for divisions 1, 2 and Co Ed. Volleyball: Weekly volleyball leagues are currently being played at West Charlotte, Tom Sykes and Wallace Pruitt. The Volleyball Women’s A League is currently in playoffs at West Charlotte. The championship game for the Co-Rec BB League will be held at Wallace Pruitt on Monday, April 22. Grass Volleyball and Flag Football: Every Tuesday night, Grass Volleyball and Co-Ed Flag Football will be played at Nevin Park.
Rural Hill Nature Preserve Scottish Festival This weekend Rural Hill Nature Preserve will be the site of the Scottish Festival and Loch Norman Highland Games. This very popular event attracts tens of thou-sands of visitors, and will run from Friday evening at 5:30 pm to Sunday afternoon at 4:30 PM. The festival features traditional Scottish games, music, food, danc-ing and more. For a full schedule of events visit http://www.ruralhillscottishfestivals.net
Mecklenburg County Races— Event Highlights: On Saturday, April 13th, 2013 the annual Charlotte RaceFest was held with over 2000 participants. Runners chose to take part in either the 10K or Half-Marathon. Under the 75 and sunny sky, Jamey Yon was able to finish the Half-Marathon with a time of 1:13:55. As for the women’s results Kelly Fill-now edged out her twin sister Meghan Fillnow by one second, finishing in a time of 1:27:32. The 10K was just as exciting with John Compton walking away as the overall win-ner with a time of 33:58. Alyson Zellner was the women’s winner with a time of 40:57. The day was very successful as runners were able to visit venders after they com-pleted their race. Part of the proceeds from the event went to Partners for Parks, in a fund that is used for youth scholar-ships. For additional Informa-tion on upcoming races please visit the adult run-ning webpage or contact Preston Buckman at [email protected]
Scenes from Events Park and Recreation Lead-ership Academy Course Instructors (l to r) Lola Massad, Greg Clemmer and James Alsop ____________________
Leadership Academy Class of 2014
Class of 2014 participants receive instructions for their “Boots on the Ground” day of touring. ____________________ The Mecklenburg County Park & Recreation Leader-ship Academy is a pro-gram designed for the growth of Park & Recrea-tion professionals. The Park & Recreation Leadership Academy is designed to provide em-ployees an opportunity to learn from and interact with other employees and professionals within the surrounding area.
Teen Summit at Naomi Drenan Recreation Center: On April 11th, Naomi Drenan Recreation Cen-ter hosted the “Good Kid Queen City” Teen Sum-mit. This was the first of 3 scheduled teen summits sched-uled. With over 70 teens in at-
tendance, they enjoyed games/activities, music, refreshments, workshops, a special live musical performance by a local art-ist. Pumping the teens up for an exciting day of activities were Charlotte’s favorite hip hop morn-ing show team, No Limit Larry, Yasmin, Church Boy and A-Dot from Power 98 WPEG. The teens
also participated in breakout sessions such as; “Poetic Justice” (How to express yourself through poetry and music. Also exploring the meaning behind the lyrics of Hip Hop mu-sic) and “Money Smart” (What you need to know about managing money and building credit...before you get to college). We would like to thank Power 98 WPEG for all of their support to make this event a success.
Naomi Drenan Recreation Center
For more information about this event or other upcoming teen summits, contact [email protected] or call 704.432.5231.
Therapeutic Recreation News— Paralympic Tandem Cycling: Paralympic Sport Metro-lina, a program of the TR Section, started tandem cycling on Saturday, April 13th. Tandem cycling is a Paralympic sport offered to youth and adults with visual impairments. A tan-dem has two positions, a captain, who is sighted and steers/guides the bike, and a stoker who provides the majority of the momen-tum. Tandem is held at Marion Diehl Recreation Center on Saturdays. For more information on Paralympic sports contact [email protected]
Recreational News from Mecklenburg Communities
In The News: CPRP Awarded Community and Recreation Center Services — Michael Daly & Katie Robinson re-cently received the distinction of Certified Park and Recrea-tion Professional (CPRP).
NOT PICTURED KATIE ROBIN-SON Congratulations to Michael, Katy and to the Department!
It’s more than just letters after your name – it’s an investment in your career that demonstrates your practical knowledge and that you have the current real-world skills necessary in today’s changing park and recreation environment.
Recreational News from Mecklenburg Communities
MeckSeniors Card Tournament at Albemarle Road Recreation Center: On April 13th, Albemarle Road Recreation Center held their 3rd annual MeckSeniors Card Tournament. The tournament included games such as spades, bid whist, and pinochle. More than 40 seniors from all over the county, and even a few from Spartanburg, SC par-ticipated in the competition. During the tournament, light refreshments were served as they listened to oldies and enjoyed this activity while forming new friendships. Awards were given to winners and runner ups.
Albemarle Road Recreation Center
For more information about this or other seniorprogramming, please contact us at [email protected] or 704.567.1941.
Romare Bearden Park - Opening June 2013
The grass was green, the sky was blue and it was a great day for Baseball. Youth from Sugaw Creek Recreation Center were treated to a wonderful after-noon at Robert and Mariam Hayes Stadium on Tuesday, April 16. North Carolina State was in town to take on the 49ers, at the time, NC State was ranked 15th in the na-
tion. Most of the children, who play in the 8 and under age division for Sugaw Creek - Baseball, witnessed a great pitcher’s duel. The final score was 2-1, with State coming out on top. Sugaw Creek Recreation Center staff thanks UNCC for making this a special day for the center youth. As part of an effort to revive baseball in inner cities, Sugaw Creek Recreation Center hosted a free local Pitch, Hit & Run competition on Saturday, April 13. Participants competed in a timed run from second to home base, they pitched to a target to score points and hit off of a tee to measure distance and accu-racy. Players accumulated one combined score with top per-formers in each category and age division moving on to the sectional round of the competition. The National Finals will be held at the MLB All Star
Week in New York City during July 14-16.
Sugaw Creek Recreation Center
For more information, contact [email protected].
Road Tripping with the Arbor Glen Super Senior Advocates Wednesday, April 17th the seniors enjoyed their monthly outing socializing, eating, walking the North Lake Mall or enjoying “Temptation” by Tyler Perry. During lunch many told about their past sum-mer adventures to beauti-ful places abroad and talked about their upcom-ing summer trips. The last See Charlotte! before sum-mer break will be Soul Food inspired.
For more information con-tact [email protected] or 704-432-1531.
Recreational News from Mecklenburg Communities
Recreational News from Mecklenburg Communities
Gaming Tournament at Ivory/Baker Curtis Baxter won a double elimination tourna-ment that consisted of 12 players on Monday, April 15th. The tournament consisted of the NBA 2K13 game on the Play Station 3. Curtis is quite the gamer, as he already holds another championship after winning the Madden Tour-nament in the fall.
Ivory/Baker Recreation Center
For more information on programs happening at Ivory/Baker call 704.432.4580 or email Ivory-BakerRecreationCenter @MecklenburgCountyNC.gov
Fitness with Nettie Very popular aerobics/fitness instructor Nettie Reeves began her aerobics class this past week to over 25 participants at the Ivory/Baker Recreation Center. Ongoing classes will be held weekly on Thursday evenings from 5:30-6:30pm. Adults of all fitness levels are wel-come to participate. For more information on programs at Ivory/Baker email [email protected] or call 704.432.4580.
The Sugaw Creek Jaguars Track and Field Team kicked off the season on April 6th at Johnson C. Smith University. 115 Participants ranging in ages 4-18 are participating in running and field events. The remaining regular season track meets are April 20th, April 27th. Contact Cynthia Smith Perkins @ 704.910.2660 or [email protected] for more information.
Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department encourages and promotes inclusive leisure experiences in all of our programs, activities and sports. Inclusive lei-sure experiences encour-age and enhance opportu-nities for people of varying abilities to participate and interact in life’s activities together with dignity. It also provides an environ-ment that promotes and fosters physical, social and psychological inclusion of people with diverse experi-ences and skill lev-els. Inclusion enhances individuals’ potential for full and active participation in leisure activities and ex-periences.
Recreational News from Mecklenburg Communities
Recreational News from Mecklenburg Communities
Park and Recreation News:
Submissions for the Newsletter
Please submit all news for the
Friday Letter to your Division
Director for review and routing.
Park Partners may contact
Kesha Meads at
for publication assistance.
The Friday Letter Volume 2 • Issue 14• April 9, 2013
Mecklenburg County
Park and Recreation
Senior Leadership Team
Jim Garges, Director
Michael Kirschman, Deputy Director
James Alsop, Enterprise Services
Renea Barber, Human Resources
Mario Chang, Budget Administration
Lee Jones, Capital Planning
Lola Massad, Community and Recreation
Center Services
Jeff Robinson, Park Operations
5841 Brookshire Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28216
(704) 336-8840
Recreate All Year! As the weather changes, look forward to new and exciting way to continue recreating during the late winter and spring months. Subscribe to the Park and Recreation E-Newsletter to stay up to date on activities that may be available to you.
www.parkandrec.com
Upcoming Events: Powerade State Games of NC February Update The Powerade State Games is returning to the Charlotte region in 2013 and we want YOU to be a part of the largest sports festival in North Carolina! Held throughout the month of June, the Powerade State Games will feature over 12,000 athletes participating in 19 different sports across more than 30 venues in a true Olympic-style sporting event. Please read this information carefully to en-sure you won't miss out on all the FUN in Charlotte this June! Online registration for the Powerade State Games is open for most sports at www.ncsports.org. You can save up to $20 on registration fees by registering online through the step-by-step Powerade State Games registration system.