Articles
Waterpark Safety Depends On Logistics, Training, And Maintenance
Waterpark safety is often positioned as the responsibility of a particular group—families must take precautions to look after their children, lifeguards must oversee a certain pool or feature, and so on. But first and foremost, safety is actually a joint effort between parkgoers and staff members, or rather, a tacit agreement that guests affirm simply by showing up.
Working With Water
Water-balloon wars were the outdoor equivalent of prime-time specials on the hottest days of my childhood. Armed with full balloons, my friends and I formed teams and wreaked havoc, resulting in unbridled joy and respite from the heat.
Branding Sand
I’ve done hundreds of logos in the past 40 years of working on athletic fields for games, playoffs, special events, and corporate functions. I’ve used both permanent and removable paint, aerosol and liquid, some chalk, and colored calcine clays; however, none of the projects were as simple or as difficult as etching 25-foot-high letters in the sand at Huntington Beach.
Returning What Once Was
One quarter—or 15-million acres—of Missouri was considered a prairie prior to European settlement. To narrow the focus even further, nearly 50,000 acres, or 17 percent, of St. Louis County was covered with tall-grass prairie during that same time period.
Play Your Part
There are approximately 39,000 golfing landscapes globally. Because the sport is played outdoors, we all have a duty to be responsible custodians of the land.
The Show Must Go On
As park and recreation professionals, we know capital construction rarely goes as planned; there are often delays and change orders that are out of our hands. The Wheaton Park District in Illinois finally met its ultimate challenge with the Memorial Park renovation project, originally set to open in June 2020.
Youth Sports Administration 101: Lead The Charge
To participants in a program, coaches are its face, so it is imperative that the goals and expectations be engrained in them. A coaches meeting is the kick-off to a season, and teams generally begin practice shortly thereafter.
Break Body-Image Barriers
Lately, I have been lucky enough to view some of the interviews the National Alliance for Youth Sports is collecting from top experts for a free, new training that will be offered to coaches, parents, and youth leaders, which deals with understanding good mental-health habits. One of the areas of discussion is how boys deal with body image in sports, and the staggering figures on how many are encountering difficulties, just as many girls have for so long.
Goodbye, Forever Friend
In my quiet, little hometown—like many other communities—students made the jump from sixth grade to seventh grade by entering junior high school. There was the typical hesitation and fear of leaving the safety and security of the neighborhood elementary school, where all our fellow students lived within blocks of the building.
Summer Fun
My dog, Snickerdoodle, hung his head out the window occasionally getting spooked by brush and branches scraping the side of the truck as the logging “roads” we travelled wound and narrowed and climbed. Eventually, we rounded one last bend and saw the trucks and excavators parked near an open meadow.
This-N-That
A collection of news items, product announcements and event notices designed to keep you on the cutting edge.
