what's up everybody Welcome to on West Gray the monthly podcast about all things local government in the city of Norman I'm your host Tiffany Vera Chief Communications officer for the city of Norman and we appreciate you tuning in today in the studio with us we have Mr Mitchell Richardson interim Recreation manager for the Norman Parks and wreck department the summer months are fast approaching and one of the things Norman's amazing parks and recck department is known for is all the fun and incredible events and programming that they put on for kids and adults throughout the community Mitchell welcome to the show thank you thank you for having me on this is fantastic I love your guys' studio setup in here and I was like I know you and Bryce do such a good job here the Communications Department it's nice to be involved with it and thanks for having me on yeah he's the brains of this operation let's be honest with you way to go BR way to go so let's start with you Mitchell tell us a little bit about your history with the Parks and Recreation Department yeah so I mean it's a little bit of a a tenur history or I've got quite a bit uh it was my first job that was really the the cool part of this is and you never left because you love it that's 100% right best thing ever is Parks and Recreation and so yeah I started at 16 um working over at the 12th Avenue Rec Center just being a what they call Recreation specialist and basically at that point you just come in and you're doing uh summer camp with the kids or some after school care and you're just there to you know make sure kids are safe and have a good time and eventually you know worked my way all the way up to here until right now I'm the interim uh Recreation manager and it's been a I guess at this point 12 year process and it's really been a great time here oh my gosh yes 12 years is something to be proud of so you got to come with the adult cool kids then to the municipal complex yes yeah I was like that was the that was the stepping off point when you got invited to the big kids table at Thanksgiving yeah yay well um well then let's dive into some of those events and the programs that we kind of um alluded to earlier on in that introduction so tell us what community members can be looking forward to this summer yeah so we have uh what three or two two hours to break down all the events and everything we do here is that right you know what you you take all the time in the world MIT yeah we can get a quick synopsis here of we we do a ton of things throughout the summer here um you know it really starts off uh the Westwood uh family aquatic center opening up that's our municipal pool it's a fantastic facility that was built with the Norman Ford project project I believe it opened back up in 2018 and that's off of Northwest 24th and Robinson right correct correct yeah the whole Westwood uh complex there we've got the Westwood Pool Westwood uh golf course and the tennis center there um well the pool opens up here on May uh 25th um and it is from 12: to 8 and then we actually if you buy a season pass and you we have a season pass holder preview May 2 4th um so that's another little extra incentive there to go ahead and get get those season passes in you guys always have the coolest swag I think that um most of us on the management team snagged one of those um the big like uh tie-dye cup tumbler cup go yeah those are super cool I love it so I'm like what are you guys going to have this season I was like I got to get with uh Josh Holman's the guy that runs it out there and he does a fantastic job of procuring all the cool swag and he pulls stuff that I haven't even thought of and he does he does a great job with that we'll have to see see what he's got coming this year okay yeah uh with the pool though I mean we still have uh I think right now there's private swim lessons available coming through it uh our group ones I believe we've got a weight list going they're already full like that's uh there's been a great uh pull from the community there to really get engaged with swim lessons because it's a really important thing especially here in Oklahoma we have so many bodies of water that people go into yes that it's really really important for people to learn how to swim and have safe swims yes um and that's why we also have our teen aquatic safety program um that's something where we kind of have if you are in between the age of like 13 15 type there and you want to come to the pool by yourself this is the program you got to go to to make sure that you're going to be a safe person at the pool there so it's a good uh good way to get people engaged uh and get youth PE youth engaged with uh the pool uh same thing with our Junior Elite lifegard uh camp and that's a really cool program to where we've got uh kids I think from the ages of like 10 all the way to 15 you know being Junior Lifeguards and they get to learn how lifeguards work they'll have a tube and be next to lifeguards as they're on duty and understanding how it works and it's a great way for us to get retention of those uh lifeguards as we go up because that's one of the hardest parts about Municipal pools is getting those lifeguards and getting good quality lifeguards yes there's a there's a ton and then you're trying to work probably with vacation schedules and everything else during the height of the summer so I totally get that um one of the one of the things we've also got coming up is our uh summer camp program and so we have uh three recreation centers that we'll be doing summer camps we've got the 12th Avenue Recreation Center Whittier and Irving um that starts on May 28th and it is uh a really a great program we take ages from 5 to 12 5: to 11: and uh they go on field trips weekly field trips uh to different places like the Westwood Family Aquatic Center and uh the Oklahoma City Zoo and Jasmine ran Children's Museum I mean they go all over the place and all the arts and crafts and activities and that's where I started uh doing those summer camp programs and now it is tenfolds better than what we were doing when I was there and I I was like they they just do so much they're so much more creative than I am and I'm super impressed with them as so 5 to 11 at any of those three locations yes I was like our 12th Avenue Rec Center is full um but we do have some availabilities at both Irving and Whittier um those rec centers really are um the kind of glue and hold uh the idea of all child care so that they really do a fantastic job there um the young family athletic center our new shiny facility there um it has some uh new summer programs coming out too we'll have a pickle ball league for the first time coming up oh my gosh yeah I was like pickle ball has been a sport that's been taken over okay what's the age limit for that one uh I don't I think it's just an adult league so I mean you can if if you want to you want to set up a team you want to go together Mr Vera will be very excited about this okay yeah let's do it let's do it and Bryce you want to join too I I see him nodding yes we'll just tell the people that he's not exactly exactly he's coming with us he's coming with us uh but yeah the pickle ball league we've got the uh another youth basketball league which our last youth basketball league we just finished up not too long ago uh was very successful and we had around I think 1400 kids through go through there and man that parking lot is packed every time my past yeah I was like it is it's fantastic to see how many people roll through there and we we kind of checked some numbers and everything and I think we in the month of March here we had around like 70 or 75,000 people roll through that fac my goodness and so basketball volleyball you named you know pickle ball um there's also um kind of that medical element in there as well in partnership with Norman Regional and then you also just opened the pools in there recently right the indoor pools yes yeah then indoor pool just opened up and right now uh through April 12th um we've got uh free community hours to come in and check out the pool after that it'll be included in the memberships and you can do your daily uh daily fee as well um but yeah it's got eight uh competition lane pool and a four lane Recreation pool um in the competition side it's got this giant video board and a RAC tracker for all those competition meets um and a stadium seating uh it really it really sets itself apart oh my gosh that is so exciting and folks can go on to wfa.com correct yeah yfac c.com to learn more yeah thanks for the plug I appreciate that I got you Mitchell yeah you um one of our other so when we get into like our special events uh this is something that uh I kind of hold near and dear it's something that as I've was born here in Norman and I've grown up in Norman um I have got pictures and memories of going to all the special events and it's really fun for to have that ability to kind of put those on now and to give that back to the public and hopefully Inspire the next person that's going to come through our recreation department and come and put on all the great events as well we've got our Norman fourth Fest coming up that's our biggest outdoor event yes um we usually have somewhere in the 12 to 13,000 in the park and 30,000 around the surrounding area because this year we've got the biggest public fireworks show going on in the state of course we do yeah of course we do we love our fireworks course we do all right well that is exciting and that is actually that takes place on the 4th of July in Reeves Park right correct yeah at Reeves Park in July 4th uh fireworks at at 9:45 um we've also got live shows uh from Hook uh which does some kind of 70s 80s classic rock uh and also it's a band called lip service which does uh metal and80s hair band we're really kind of throwing it back and giving giving some fun 80s Vibes with our uh bands this year all right yeah uh fourth July we also I mean it is a packed day for Parks and Recreation so we've got our red white and blue swim at the uh Westwood Family aquatic winter Westwood Family Aquatic Center yes and we also have um our firec firecracker 5 and so that is at Legacy Park um that was put on last year by the Oklahoma race company and they've done a fantastic job we've partnered with them we're going to be putting that on together um and it is uh just 5K right down that Interstate Drive off of Legacy Park basically you'll go down come back and it was a huge hit last year so we're going to keep that rolling wonderful okay yeah I was like we're just gonna let's see we've got juneth coming up um so juneth is going to the festival itself is going to happen on June 19 uh there'll be live performances education and understanding and basically some teaching moments throughout that uh that one also has fireworks all right so we just keep them rolling with the fireworks um we've also got movies in the park um so that is a program that we've been putting on for almost a decade at this point um for the summer month we've got a Barbie uh will happen on May 24th and we'll have uh Barbie box that you saw at all the uh movie theaters that people were coming in taking pictures with we're g to have some trivia stuff some costume contests it'll be full pinked out all right fun time for everybody uh we also have um our Westwood Golf Course uh is putting on the Westwood Invitational that'll be July 5th through 7th um that is just you know your golf tournament it's one of the biggest golf tournaments that they have uh also Junior we have tons of stuff going on for kids tons of stuff so we've got the Junior Golf Academy we also have differents going on at the tennis center and we also have free clinics uh at the golf course that kids can come in and just you know figure out how to putt how to do the driving range things like that okay can adults join in on those as well um there are some uh there's I think let me see there is one for I'm just I'm asking for a friend oh yeah yeah for for a friend I was like I need to definitely brush up on my golf skills too I was I went out there not too long ago and I let's just it it was it was embarrassing no one needs to see uh mitell golf that's just so you help put on the programming it doesn't mean that you were the best at the actual oh yeah and really with that I mean that's completely Rick Parish out of the golf course he handles all that he has the golf pro um PGA all that stuff he he understands all that I Don't Go Near golf well the good news is I think there's lots of opportunities through Norman Parks and Recreation to get good at anything you want to get good at so pickle ball golf swimming um I think that you guys have a full lineup this coming season for everybody it's a way to go um and you know you did name so many different events and programming you know that's that's coming up in the immediate future but I mean per year because I know you guys do things during the winter as well um do you have any idea how how many events you all kind of help coordinate or organize yeah if we like if we added up everything throughout the department and I mean we're probably putting on somewhere in the north of 50 events throughout the year range so somewhere in the 50 to 55 I mean that's just with like events and we've got tons of a different program going on I mean we are the city of festivals right yeah so it's it's a good idea for us to have a ton of different opportunities for people to come and check out different aspects with it city of festivals and the department of fun is usually how we refer to parks and wreck around here so so you know you all may put on like the 50 but then also can you talk a little bit about how all year round again Parks and Recreation really provides vital support for partner agencies and different types of initiatives um that maybe isn't a city of Norman thing proper but um you know it's important that we we support and help out um different organizations around the community to make those events successful yeah and so that's just uh that all the third party people coming in um we try to provide as much support as we can on the recreation side we're willing to meet with people and talk through events and helping coordinate and getting all that stuff sorted out I mean really all the hard work and heavy lifting comes through our Park maintenance division Wade Thompson Mike Carter shade yeah they do every like so when you're talking about those large events like Medieval Fair the Norman Music Festival Jazz and June helping you know coordinate that stuff and get work with those organizers and you know setting up all the electrical stuff getting getting all the little logistical detail stuff that's where they really come through and shine and along with try to make sure that grass is mode right yeah got to get that grass mode because people will let you know well that's awesome you guys do an amazing job uh day in and day out so in your own words Mitchell what do you think is the most essential mission of Parks and Recreation here at the city of Norman oh that is a good one that is a really good one I mean really for Parks and Recreation our goal is you know as much as we're a providing Services we're really a people business like we really we are doing everything for people that is a 100% all the stuff we do is just for the community so our mission is to provide the best Recreational Park opportunities because it spans so it's such a widot uh idea of what Recreation is and so our real goal is just to provide that for our community and that means something different for everybody we are doing as much as we can with our department as we physically can we are doing a ton of events ton of programing we have a vast amount of parks and so providing that quality of life for our residents is really our just number one goal well I think that you're doing a fantastic job so we appreciate you and your team and um I think we had Jason on the show around this time last year and he's amazing and so thankful for him as well so is there anything else that you would like listeners to know about your department what you guys do any final thoughts as much as our department gets out there and does you know all the marketing and everything I cannot commend both you Bryce and the communications team for everything that you guys do it is something that is super special that I not a lot of cities get um the yes the attention that you guys give and maybe it's just because we're the needy child of the the city I don't know it's between you guys and utilities I think but but I really do appreciate everything you guys do for us thank you well thank you we appreciate you questions or comments comary about on West Gray can be sent into public affairs at normanok.gov shouts to our producer and editor Mr Bryce Holland of the city of Norman Communications office visit normanok.gov newws to enroll for E notifications on traffic advisories upcoming events election notices and more follow us on social Facebook Instagram Twitter and YouTube city of Norman okay until next time stay engaged stay informed and always remember to cast your ballot I'm Tiffany thank you for joining us on West Gray

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