What gorgeous weather we're getting! I hope everyone is getting a chance to get out and enjoy it. We're right in the middle of planning a Summer fun day at the park (July 7th!) and have lots of exciting and fun activities lined up for it. Hopefully we'll have our new playground and equipment in by then.
Don't forget the outside fitness equipment at Hespeler - it's up and ready to use!

We have been busy scheduling summer camps, planning our summer fun day and continuing to add courses and classes as we have them scheduled. What an exciting time as we have so many programs and classes running in the facilities! It's so nice to see the facilities used for such a wide variety of programs, including dog obedience, kids art, etc etc, during times when they just sat empty before.

The Town CAO Jim Buys, and Councillor Angela Janz have been busy working on a plan to restructure the recreation department. While I haven't been included in the discussions (other than being invited on a road trip to visit Morden and Altona), I am very interested to see what changes they will propose. The CAO was quick to point out that the recreation departments in the communities that he selected for our road trip were mainly doing facility and ice scheduling and were not involved in programming at all (which is, of course, due to the amount of programs and recreational opportunities that already exist in their communities - yoga studios, art councils, gymnastics club, etc). I have faith that after this past year and a half and the wonderful feedback from the community that we have had regarding the programs and events that we have been offering that this will not be the direction that they decide to take. Until an official announcement is made by council then we will continue to run as normal.

I'm so excited about our winter fun day here next week, although the lack of snow may make some of our events a little difficult (snowball rolling contest??) We have a fantastic snow hill though, thanks to the arena guys and the town guys, so make sure you bring those toboggans!

We have lots of fun free events and activities lined up for the month of February! Why not try something new this winter - speed skating, ringette, curling, zumba, snowshoeing, yoga, tuff n up boot camp sessions and more are all offered for free either over the course of the month or on our family fun day on Feb 20th! If you're not sure if you'd like to sign up for an upcoming session of zumba, yoga or the boot camp, why not come and try it out for free during February! Check out the schedule for dates and times of the free sessions:
http://www.nivervillerecreation.com/family-fitness-month.html

We're pretty excited over at the rec office! Our idea for an accessible playground and natural playground area for phase 3 of the Hespeler Park improvement project were approved by our board, and by Town Council. Not only that, but Investors Group approved our grant request and will be providing funding of $5,500 towards this project! We're in the process of applying for a Community Places grant and will be looking at other sources of revenue as well. If you work for a company that provides funding for community projects, please keep us in mind!

Round 2 of voting starts on the Aviva contest today. Our submission had almost 300 supporters last round, so PLEASE vote every day! We can do this! With that many supporters voting every day we can achieve 4,500 votes in round two, which should easily put us into semi finals (And how fabulous would it be to have a $100,000 to invest into a natural, INCLUSIVE and ACCESSIBLE playground at Hespeler Park?)

Niverville Recreation and Wellness is starting up a new project called the Community Volunteer Network. We are working to bring local organizations and event planners that need volunteers together with people from the community who want to volunteer.

We are looking for organizations to register their Call for Volunteers and community people to register as potential volunteers specifically outlining their areas of interest and availability. With the information from organizations and community members, we can begin matching volunteers with potential placements.

With this initiative we are is striving to meet three goals: One, is to make it easier for volunteers to find places where they want to give their time and to open the door for people who have thought of volunteering but weren’t sure where to go. Two, is to gather together the places in our community that need volunteers. The third goal is to highlight and celebrate the commitment of our community volunteers. Many of the great events, services, projects and programs our community offers happen because of volunteers.

As this is a new project, any feedback/suggestions are welcome as to how we can make this even more successful. Please contact Robyn at Recreation@whereyoubelong.ca

Fall sure seemed to swoop in suddenly, but no complaints here after the beautiful summer we had! Our fall programs are off and running - the first cooking class is full, photography is full, mommy and me boot camp has 16 participants (well, about 40 if you include the kids! lol), zumba is running again on Saturdays (not the 24th though!). Yoga evening class and lunchtime class are both ones that you can drop in to for only $12.

The Imagine Run is this Saturday! While I won't be running in it, I will be volunteering during it and I'm looking forward to it!

We had our first sports equipment sale this evening (there's still half an hour left). A huge flurry of activity and people during the first 35 minutes saw almost all of the shoulder pads, knee pads etc sell, but not a single skate (or pair!). No one needs skates? :)