Articles

When Residents Reject Youth-Sports Fields
Features Jefferey Spivey Features Jefferey Spivey

When Residents Reject Youth-Sports Fields

Youth-sports fields generally offer positive benefits for communities. Most notably, they encourage children’s participation in team sports, where they can establish healthy habits, hone their skills, and fortify social bonds.

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Show, Don’t Tell
Parks Danielle Mauter Parks Danielle Mauter

Show, Don’t Tell

Parks systems play critical roles in generating significant economic, health, and environmental benefits that enhance the quality of life in communities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parks staff members know this, but they often struggle with the best ways to prove it to partners, grantors, and local tax payers; communities often don’t think of parks as economic drivers.

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A Legacy Reborn
Sports Fields, Most Popular Liz Morrell and W. Lee Jones Sports Fields, Most Popular Liz Morrell and W. Lee Jones

A Legacy Reborn

Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation reopened the iconic American Legion Memorial Stadium (ALMS) with a small ceremony on July 7, 2021. The $40.5-million stadium—located in Charlotte, North Carolina’s center city, on a 9.80-acre site adjacent to the main campus of Central Piedmont Community College—was built during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program of the New Deal.

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Intersectional Efforts
Columns Antonio Williams Columns Antonio Williams

Intersectional Efforts

When people have access to the outdoors, they thrive. From improving mental health to increasing physical activity, the outdoors has much to offer anyone privileged to live close to a park or an open space.

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Valuing Volunteers
Columns John Engh Columns John Engh

Valuing Volunteers

With the exception of 2020, which wiped out youth sports, one of my favorite moments each year is reviewing the final applications from the NAYS volunteer coach- and parent-of-the-year nominations. Applications come in from around the world from member organizations on almost every U.S. military installation that organizes youth sports.

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Gathering Trophies
Columns Ron Ciancutti Columns Ron Ciancutti

Gathering Trophies

“The overriding problem with our world in general is that we are, in large part, managed by incompetents. Most of these are men who have spent their lives seeking power rather than themselves.

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