BY KEITH LIPPOLDT
klippoldt@gbtribune.com
The summer of 2025 is all but over for activities for the Great Bend Recreation Center and, once again, it has been another extremely successful season for classes, activities, sports and attendance.
Attendance Report
At the July Board meeting, Business Director Joe Henry reported that for the month of June, there were 2,966 people enrolled in programs sponsored by the Recreation Commission. Total participation for the month was 30,923 and of that total, 16,047 were spectators. For the month, a total of 2,050 hours of supervised activities were offered.
Last year there were 2,906 people enrolled in programs with total participation of 33,823, of which 16,064 were spectators.
The numbers would have been higher this past month except for the fact that a USSSA tournament was rained out. These events are usually responsible for an additional 3,000 people.
Enrichment Report
GBRC Enrichment Director Garet Fitzpatrick said that all classes and activities that were being held in the schools have been completed so the schools can resume preparations for the upcoming year.
“The school sites are done,” he said. “We’re still at the activity center, the zoo, and here at the rec center, offering programs through the next couple weeks. The Kids Day Out programs are going really well. Participation numbers are good. The STEM programs with Amy Stein was very popular this summer. The Stone Lion Puppets out of Kansas City — those programs just didn’t get enough participants for him. I’m thinking about trying to bring him for Santa’s Workshop. We know we’ll have the audience there.
“We had a drop-in craft project at the Barton County Fair for families on the 28th from 9-10:30 a.m. We went through approximately 30 projects that day. Our cooking classes are continuing. Once again, Karen Clark does an outstanding job with those. Our dance class recital was Thursday of last week. They went very good — a lot of positive comments there. We’re now working on fall.”
Enrichment/Aquatic Report
Enrichment/Aquatic Director Megan Hammeke said that she and her staff have been “living at the swimming pool.”
“We just finished our third session of the normal, everyday swim lessons, and we started Mommy and Me today,” she said. “So we have two Mommy and Me sessions that are parent-child sessions, and then fitness classes. Fitness classes go through August 1, and then we’ll take time off that August to paint and do floors and all that. August 1 is the last scheduled session, unless they have a couple makeup days. And water aerobics will go all the way through the pool being open. Then we’ll be done with them for the year.”
Sports Report
One of the busier times of the year for sports, Sports Director Shane Sandberg said baseball and softball seasons have been completed for 2025.
“We are done with ball season — tournaments and our games,” Sandberg said. “We did have our postseason league tournament last week for our 6-older leagues. For the third year in a row, our fifth and sixth grade girls league went into extra innings on the championship game. Our tournament season finished out the last weekend in June with the 11-year old Hap Dumont State. We had 21 teams this year. We broke that down into an Open, Double A division and Single A division. So it’s kind of three state champions that weekend. All the rest of the Hap Dumont tournaments are in Wichita these days for the state championships. We’re still chugging along with our 11-Unders. Men’s slow pitch softball is finishing up this week with postseason championship games on Friday.”
Sandberg was pleased with the turnout for the MLB Pitch, Hit and Run competition that brought in 80 participants, more than double the previous high. It’s possible that some of the winners will advance to Kansas City for the next round of competition. Those that advance will be notified at the end of August.
