Rec Room

Parks & Recreation, March, 1999

Cities Score Grants from NFL Charities

The National Recreation and Park Association and NFL Charities recently announced the recipients of 25 $1,000 grants (right) to foster and stimulate youth football programs through parks and recreation.

Fun & Fit

A recent study conducted by the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition suggests that physical leisure activity you enjoy -- running, cycling, gardening -- provides greater cardiovascular benefit than physical activity that's just more work.

CALIFORNIA

[Check]   Lodi Parks and Recreation Department
[Check]   San Diego Park and Recreation Department
[Check]   City of Sanger
[Check]   West Sacramento Parks and Community Services

COLORADO

[Check]   Grand Junction Parks and Recreation Department
[Check]   South Suburban Park and Recreation Department

DELAWARE

[Check]   Kent County Parks and Recreation

FLORIDA

[Check]   Miami Beach Recreation, Culture & Parks

GEORGIA

[Check]   North Macon Flag Football

ILLINOIS

[Check]   Sterling Park District
[Check]   Waukegan Park  District

INDIANA

[Check]   Valparaiso Parks & Recreation Department

MINNESOTA

[Check]   City of Duluth

MISSISSIPPI

[Check]   Ridgeland Parks and Recreation Department

NORTH CAROLINA

[Check]   Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation Department

NEVADA

[Check]   City of Las Vegas

NEW YORK

[Check]   Greenburgh Parks and Recreation Department
[Check]   Riga Recreation Department
[Check]   Perinton Recreation & Parks Department
[Check]   Rye Recreation Department

OHIO

[Check]   Cincinnati Recreation Commission

PENNSYLVANIA

[Check]   Lancaster Recreation Commission

TENNESSEE

[Check]   Athens Department of Parks & Recreation

TEXAS

[Check]   Dallas Parks and Recreation Department

WISCONSIN

[Check]   Platteville Parks and Recreation Department

Ask the P&Rxpert

Dear P&Rxpert:

We are completely renovating two outdoor tennis courts. We are planning on dedicating one court to tennis and the other to inline skating and hockey. If possible, we would like one area (or both) to be convertible from tennis to hockey. Has anyone done anything like this?

Les Davis, Director Siloam Springs (Ark.) Parks & Recreation

Dear Les:

We had difficulty with this. The wheels were rough on the tennis court sealer, tennis-net posts were an obstacle, and removable posts were not acceptable because of a trip hazard presented by caps.

The main problem was the unwillingness of the inline skaters to stay off the courts when tennis season began. Nets would be taken down by skaters, and would sometimes disappear altogether.

What we did instead was to fit a double basketball-court enclosure for roller hockey. We built the basketball posts into the fence so the court area has no obstacles.

When basketball season starts, the basketball players (some of whom are inline skaters) enforce the seasonal change for us. The basketball court is not sealed and can take the punishment.

Gary Hardenbrook Shrewsbury (Mass.) Parks and Recreation Department

Got a parks and recreation question for one of our P&Rxperts? Send it to Editor, P&R, 22377 Belmont Ridge Rd., Ashburn, VA 20148, e-mail to dvaira@nrpa.org, or call (703) 858-2175.

All the World's a Gym

Are the fluorescent lights in your workout facility starting to give you a bad case of cabin fever? Longing to get outside for a breath of fresh air? Fitness educator Angela Settle's got just the thing for you.

Settle, a former fitness expert for NBC's Weekend Today, CBS This Morning, and WGN-TV's morning news in Chicago, has created "Training in the Park," an exercise kit that offers a go-anywhere fitness routine and turns the outdoors into an exercise studio. The kit, appropriate for all ages and fitness levels, includes an illustrative video and booklet as well as SPRI Xertube, which provides the resistance for muscle toning.

"Invigorating fresh air and beautiful natural surroundings energize the body and the mind," says Settle. "The healing benefits of the outdoors are extremely powerful--and they can't be found in a gym." To order, call (203) 323-7617.

Get Out

A recent Harris poll reports that reading is still Americans' No. 1 favorite leisure-time activity. No. 2? Watching TV.

Tune IN, Turn OFF

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American spends 3 hours and 46 minutes watching television each day. A statistic staggering enough on its own, it's positively frightening when you figure out that it boils down to 52 days of uninterrupted boob-tube viewing per year.

But enough is enough, exclaims Mimi Noorani, program director of TV-Free America, a national nonprofit organization that, during its fifth annual National TV-Turnoff Week, April 22-28, will encourage Americans to turn off TV, and turn on life. "Life doesn't end when prime time begins. Instead of watching the Discovery Channel, people are out making their own discoveries," Noorani says.

During this week of observation, an estimated 7 million Americans will turn off their sets and "rediscover that life can be more constructive and rewarding with more time and less TV." The group's comprehensive "Organizer's Kit," a 48-page handbook complete with pledge cards, posters, and revealing facts and figures, provides motivation for even the most couch-ridden spud to click off the idiot box.