Western region - Regional Reports

Parks & Recreation, Feb, 2003

The NRPA Combined MW/SW Regional Leadership and Professional Training Institute, to be held at the Pueblo (Colo.) Marriott and Convention Center April 11-14, will host both Midwest and Southwest Regional Council meetings. Pre-institute workshops will be held on diversity, aquatics and youth sports. Sports legend Rick Upchurch, a wide receiver and punt returner for the Denver Broncos, will be speaking. He heads up the Rare Breed Sports and Leadership Foundation and was recently inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.

The 2002 NRPA Western Service Center Midwest Regional Awards were recently presented. The Fellow Award was presented to JoAnn Gould, Littleton, Colo., and Carol McCoy, Casper, Wyo. The Individual Citation was given to Roger Kasa, Huron, S.D., and Jay Cimino, Colorado Springs, Colo. The Arts and Humanities Award Class I was presented to Colorado Springs Senior Center in Colorado Springs for its living history project.

Join the Seven Fires Foundation on July 11 and walk a mile, or 1,700 miles. The Seven Fires Foundation is walking from Kyle, S.D., to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness and support for The Lakota Project, an outreach program to re-teach children the traditions, sacred values and honored culture of the Lakota Nation through the teaching of the Lakota language. For more information about Spirit Walk 2003 and the Lakota Project, go to www.7fires.org.

The popular musical group Destiny's Child dedicated a new youth center in downtown Houston in December. Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams helped open the center at St. John's United Methodist Church. The Knowles family and Rowland donated $500,000 to the adjoining Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth, which will host the St. John's Academy after-school program. Activities will include Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, abstinence and sexuality education classes, mentoring and tutoring programs, and career development activities.

The America Moves conference, to be held April 3-4 in Mesa, Ariz., is designed to create more active, livable communities by forging partnerships and building alliances. Attending America Moves will give you the tools you need to create synergy and partnerships--invaluable resources given constricted budgets in today's economy. For more information, contact Brian_Fellows@ci.mesa.az.us or go to www.bikewalk.org/assets/pdf/ America_Moves_registration 1.pdf.

Larry Quintero, a member of the International Wheelchair Federation Association, conducted the first training clinic of the recently developed Blaze-Sports Club in San Antonio, Texas. The club, sponsored by the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department's Therapeutic Recreation program, offers youths with physical disabilities opportunities to play wheelchair tennis and rugby.