BY KEITH LIPPOLDT
klippoldt@gbtribune.com
The Great Bend Recreation Board and staff met Monday afternoon in the Burnside Room at the Carl Soden Recreation Center to discuss 2024 year-end and look ahead to upcoming 2025 activities and offerings. After a busy 2024, staff is anticipating an even busier 2025.
Enrichment and Activity Center Director Garet Fitzpatrick reported a very busy month of December - full of Christmas classes for kids and adults from crafting to acrylic painting. The highlight of the month was the 28th annual Santa’s Workshop which brought in nearly 1,000 visitors, young and old, for games, cookie decorating and a visit with Santa Claus at City Auditorium. In addition to the GBRC staff, this event included students from GBHS, Barton Community College softball, staff from Sunflower Early Education Center, Parents as Teachers, Parent Teacher Resource Center, the Great Bend Public Library, the GB Police Department, the GB Fire and EMS, as well as several individual volunteers.
Fitzpatrick also reported that 162 letters to Santa were received and they had 54 entries in its “My Christmas Tree Facebook photo contest.”
Enrichment, Aquatic, MArketing Director Megan Hammeke also reported on a very busy December. Among the December adaptive activities was bowling and a Christmas dance. Besides the regular classes, other activities offered were Christmas cookie decorating, holiday crafts, cooking, movies, and coffee and crafts.
Fit for Life exercise class produced the most participants with 233 over nine class periods. Midday Stretch and Chair Yoga were two other popular choices.
A new feature that will soon be in place at the Activity Center is T-WALL 32. According to the T-WALL website, this machine is the most versatile training tool where you are tasked with deactivating the light sensors. It states that this machine will help people who want to get into shape focus on different areas of their body that they want to perfect. This machine should be available for use in the very near future.
Sports Director Shane Sandberg said that with the holiday break over, adult volleyball, as well as youth and adult indoor soccer have resumed play. Playoffs for adult women’s and men’s league soccer will begin this week with the women’s championship game scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 23, and the men’s champion to be decided on Sunday, Jan. 26.
Youth basketball registration has ended and teams for the 1st through 6th grade leagues will be formed this week. Coaches meetings will be held the last week of January with practices beginning the first week of February. GBRC will be hosting a travel basketball tournament at the high school PAC and the GBMS gyms on Jan. 25 and 26.
Fitzpatrick said that adult and high school basketball rules will remain the same as before. He did propose a change of the goal height from 8-feet 6-inches to 9-feet for third and fourth grade leagues. The board approved the change and it will be implemented this winter.
Esports will return on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in February at the Carl Soden Center.
Executive Director Chris Humphres gave the attendance report for December. GBRC offered 1,318 hours of supervised activities in December. There were 3,671 people enrolled in activities for the month. Total participation for December 2024 was 12,919 which included 5,482 spectators. These numbers were up from 2023 which showed 3,564 enrolled, 10,588 participants with 4,347 spectators.
New business
• In accordance with GBRC By-Laws, the commission shall elect officers during the January board meeting. The positions to be nominated include Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and Secretary. A motion was made and carried to place John Pike as Chairman, Randy Goering as Vice-Chairman and Colleen Newman as Secretary. These members will hold these positions until January 2026.
• To satisfy internal auditing procedures, the GBRC board members were asked to review and sign the Conflict of Interest Statement and agree to comply with its terms and conditions while serving on the board.
• Humphres announced the Kansas Recreation and Parks Association annual conference will be held Jan. 28-30 in Manhattan. Most of the staff will be attending as an opportunity to learn new ideas from other recreation departments and conference speakers. This is also a way for staff to earn continuing education hours.
The next GBRC Board meeting will be held at 4 p.m., Monday, February 10.
