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Valley Voices
Mountain Recreation is evolving as a district, and we hope you are seeing the changes we’re making every day to better serve you. Since reopening post-COVID, the Mountain Rec staff have been finding ways to keep our facilities clean, operational, and welcoming to everyone.
Janet Bartnik
The benefits of this effort are clear: Memberships are once again on the rise, many youth summer camps were sold out with waitlists upon waitlists, our sports leagues had more growth than we’ve ever seen before, and our three pools have seen thousands of guests this summer. On top of that, we’ve held a ribbon cutting ceremony for our new Eagle Sports Complex building, we’ve partnered with Small Champions to bring new Adaptive Rec programming to ensure all youth feel like they belong, and, even more, we’ve been working on ourselves to revisit how to create welcoming and inclusive spaces and programs.
Recently, the team at Mountain Recreation launched All Access Rec, a capital improvements initiative that addresses the growing needs of our community. The district’s recreation facilities were built for half of the population we now serve, and the community needs are fast outgrowing the facilities. Through All Access Rec, we want to ensure our existing community has increased access while anticipating population growth.
It’s going to sound a bit cheesy, but it takes a community to build community centers. We are asking for community investment into some of Eagle County’s greatest assets. Similar to schools, fire and paramedic services and libraries, parks and recreation facilities are a community-wide investment, often built and maintained as a shared community cost.
Mountain Recreation
The goal of Mountain Recreation is not simply to get back to normal, the goal is to be better. (Special to the Daily)
This past year may be remembered as the year of COVID-19, but I prefer to see it as the year our community came together like never before to push our valley forward. And I am proud to say that Mountain Recreation, and its staff, played an instrumental role as a community health leader.
We will continue to operate our facilities and programs to fulfill our mission. We will keep our eyes on the horizon that awaits us as we seek to convert recreation centers into community centers. And, of course, there will be some things we simply cannot forecast. Together, we will continue to take risks, generate amazing ideas, listen to each other, make mistakes, connect with each other and the community, and move forward… with collective purpose.