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Recreation Director's Report On Friday, January 5, 2007, at the VT Police Academy, the Maclure Library and the Recreation Department cosponsored the first of three Family Fun Nights to be held this winter. The theme for this particular event was "Under the Sea" with approximately 122 people attending. The children made whales out of paper lunch bags, construction paper and chalk. Some kids decorated special pieces of art that will be displayed at Town Meeting in March. Others choose to wait in line to have their face painted with cute designs while others avoided the long wait by putting on (temporary) tattoos instead. The Recreation Department provided plenty of activities and games for the children to take part in. The Recreation Department recently purchased new games like "Giant Connect Four, Checkers, Chess, & Dart ball" to go along with the other fun activities that we offer. I invited Otter Valley Physical Education teacher and Recreation Committee member, Michele Cioffredi, and her husband Geoff Lawrence back again to engage with the children. First, they got all the children involved by dancing and singing to different songs. Secondly, they brought back the scooters that the kids were so fond of last year and did scooter relays with them. The relay races really got most of the children involved, and it was great to see the children cheering and encouraging each other along. I would like to extend a thank you to Michele and Geoff for taking time to be at the Family Fun Night. I'd also like to thank Kathy Shortsleeves for volunteering to help out. Having her present was a real time saver for me setting up; it nearly cut our prep time in half. Kathy also agreed to meet & greet folks as they entered the VT Police Academy gym, and helped them sign in. Thanks Kathy. On Saturday, January 6, the Recreation Department's Youth Basketball program grades 1st - 4st began for another season. As expected, we had another large number register to play. Like last year I had to keep the 1st and 2nd groups separate because there are so many kids. There are just 10 1st graders playing this season. This team is being coached by Dick Williams. There are 22 boys and girls on the 2nd grade team, and it is being coached by Lester Wall and parent helpers. The 3/4 boys team has 16 players. I've discussed with coach Dennis Riesterer about perhaps splitting this group again as long as there would be help enough. We could split the game schedule and the two teams could play each other a couple of times so each group would still end up with four games. We'll decide what we're going to do after a couple more practices so we can get a better understanding of what type of players make up the team. If most of the players are into basketball, showing up for practices, and are willing to listen to their coaches then we'll most likely divide the group, however if most of the players seem like it's a bother to be at practices and/or can't listen then we probably won't split into two teams. The 3/4 girls team has 11 players participating and is being coached by Rick Hedding. After practicing the entire month of December, the Lothrop 5/6 boys and girls teams have already began playing games. In all there are eight different basketball teams with a total of 94 kids participating. I'm excited to report to that the Kripula Yoga program that began on Monday, January 8 got off to a fantastic start. A program that often struggles to get the minimum number of participates needed to run the class has gotten outstanding response this time. We had ten people pre-register with the Recreation Department to participate, which filled the class since it is being held in basement level at the Maclure Library this first session only. We also have another nine or so folks on a waiting list. These people inquired about the program after we had it already filled. I feel bad that we couldn't accommodate everyone but perhaps it'll get people thinking about pre-registering now (rather than later) for either of the next two sessions of yoga that will take place in the spring. It's also worth mentioning that the next two sessions are scheduled to take place after the basketball season in the Lothrop Gym which means more individuals will be able to participate in each class because the gym can handle much larger class sizes than the Maclure Library can. The increase of interest in this particular program is the direct result of getting this information out early and often. I took advantage of three different newspapers (the Brandon/Pittsford Reporter, the Mountain Times, & the Rutland Herald) free advertising programs to inform residents of our yoga program. This information was in the papers since before Christmas, and has appeared multiple times in each publication to keep reminding people what we're offering and when.
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