Get up and be active during Aurora’s Recreation & Parks month

June 1, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Summer officially arrives this month, ushering in a season of being outside for some fun in the sun, so get outside to our local greenspaces to mark Aurora’s Recreation & Parks Month – or #aurorarpm16.

June is Recreation & Parks Month and the Town of Aurora is pulling out all the stops to showcase everything local parks and recreational programs have to offer the community for the young and the young at heart.

The month kicked off Wednesday with a “pickle ball” tourney geared towards Aurora’s senior population and continues throughout this week with activities on the Sheppard’s Bush trails on Thursday, gym drop-in and beach volleyball at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex on Friday, and Yoga in the Park for adults on Saturday.

Participants are encouraged to spread the word on social media using the hashtag and the best pictures will be selected by the Town for the upcoming Aurora Leisure Guide.

And that’s just the start — there is something for everybody planned on just about every day of June.

To properly gear up for the month of fun, head over to the Aurora Family Leisure Complex or Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex to pick up your official Parks Month passport. You can complete your passport by participating in a variety of activities, which will be stamped, and those submitting completed passports will be eligible to win $50 worth of credits for parks and rec programming.

“One of the things we would love to do is showcase the wide range of services we offer,” said Adrian Wong, Recreation Supervisor for Fitness in the Town’s Parks and Recreation Department. “We are very good at promoting our recreation programs, however, we can do a little bit better in terms of promoting our parks and trails that we offer to Aurora residents. In June, we are looking at running a wide range of programs in our parks and trails.

“We are trying to find opportunities for people to be engaged and to check out some of the new trails and parks in their location, and neighbouring areas getting them active. We would like to engage participants to participate beyond the month of June. We would like to take this as a jump-start opportunity to get people to participate but once they have gotten the opportunity to play and be active, to also get them to join us in our programs throughout the year as well.”

The Parks and Rec department is working in conjunction with the Aurora Seniors Association to offer programs to seniors across the spectrum.

“We are using a passport system to engage people to participate,” said Mr. Wong. “We want them to participate in four different types of activities: sports activities, fitness activities that are more fitness class-oriented, and [engagement in] enjoying our parks and trails and doing some form of social activities, whether it is some form of family programming or participating in a larger group.

“June is also Seniors Month and the Aurora Seniors Association is looking to promote their programs as well. They are in collaboration with the Parks and Recreation Services to offer different activities in June. They are trying to get their seniors active by doing a separate passport on their own. They are looking at doing group fitness demonstrations, different types of services like free coffee to their members to encourage them to interact with each other and provide different types of seminars and health check opportunities to help them to be more active and aware of their conditions as well.”

For more information on Recreation & Parks month, including a complete schedule, of activities, visit bit.ly/20Q7naL.