Town of Pittsford, Vermont

Recreation Director's Report 
March 12, 2007

            On Wednesday, February 21, the Recreation Department sponsored a School Break Fun Day program. From time to the time, the Recreation Department sponsors fun and exciting field trips during school breaks in order to get children out of the house to engage in some social interaction and to participate in some type of physical activity. We had twenty-nine kids (kindergarten - 6^th grade) who went "indoor rock climbing" with us at the Green Mountain Climbing Center in the morning. After lunch, the group enjoyed an afternoon of swimming in the Mitchell Therapy Pool at VAC.

            The Recreation Department in conjunction with the Marble Valley Grange #567 co-sponsored a "Family Mardi Gras Celebration" at the VT Police Academy, on Saturday, February 24, 6:00 - 9:00 pm. The event would have been held earlier in the day however the Police Academy had some of their own testing happening during the afternoon so we could not get in the gym any sooner. The grange members did a fantastic job decorating the gym, the balloons, streamers, and pinatas certainly gave the gym a festive feeling to it. Again this year the grange had plenty of authentic "king cake", whoopy pies, and other tasty desserts that centered around the traditional Mardi Gras theme. There were plenty for activities for the children to participate in such as making noise makers & festive face masks for the parade that took place later in the evening. There was lots of music for dancing & musical chairs. Kids had the opportunity to win tickets by playing games that could be exchanged for prizes, which was really cool because everyone enjoyed being able to pick out their own prizes. The grange did a fantastic job insuring that EVERY child went home a winner. The most popular event was when it was time for the kids to open the pinatas. They got a huge thrill just being able to hit the pinatas, not to mention the commotion it created when the prizes fell out. However, this program still did not get the overwhelming response that the grange and myself were looking for. This is another example how hard it is to coordinate "successful" activities around a school vacation. It's much more difficult to create an interest in a particular event when families have other priorities.

            On Friday, March 2^nd, the third Family Fun Night of the winter "Lost in Space" was scheduled to take place at the VT Police Academy had to be cancelled due to a combination storm of snow, sleet, and ice. This was an unfortunate because a lot of families look forward to the Family Fun Nights that the Recreation Department and the Maclure Library co-sponsor each winter. Usually when one of these events is cancelled we don't reschedule because of the heavy use of the academy and it can be difficult to reschedule.

            I know spring is near because I've been putting a lot time and effort into the baseball and softball programs. On March 7, I attended a Rutland County Softball Association meeting at the Rutland Recreation Department. The season dates were established for the various levels of softball. Committees were formed, and everyone was looking forward to the start of another season. On March 8, I held a coach's pre-season meeting for our youth league baseball coaches to bring them speed on the changes that have been made throughout the entire league. As you may recall the league has been working since last July to restructure itself to make it a much more fun and enjoyable program to participate in. A new "minor" baseball division has been added throughout the league for the 9 & 10 year olds to play in. In doing, it now aligns our baseball divisions into two year age ranges rather than three. No longer will the 9 year olds play with 7 year olds and the 10 year olds will not be playing against 12 year olds. The changes will allow kids more actual practice and playing time. Also changes to the league structure allows flexibility for kids to "play-up" when a team is shorthanded, thus teams can be formed with smaller roster sizes. These changes also will put our league more in line with "Little League" requirements in case the league ever wanted to become a sanctioned "Little League" years down the road. Note: Families who wish to sign up their child to play baseball or softball can do so from March 1 - 30 for most levels. Registration forms are available at the Town Offices during regular business hours, plus each child at Lothrop School will receive a copy to bring home. Parents must compete the form and return it to me my the deadline. Folks are encouraged to sign up early to avoid any problems. To promote the program, and to serve as a reminder, the Recreation Department has placed a flyer in the Brandon/Pittsford Reporter for the next few weeks

            Our second session of Kripalu Yoga began on Monday, March 12, 2007. This is third consecutive winter that the Recreation Department has offered this particular program and each year it's gotten more and more popular. Similar to the trend we've seen the past two years the March session has produced the most interest so far. A total of 14 people attended the first night of the program which is being held in the Lothrop Gym.

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