Valley Parks and Recreation kicks out new programs
BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
VALLEY — Valley Parks and Recreation is working to curate its events and programs to community needs and interests.
“We're thinking about the future,” said Valley Parks and Recreation Program Coordinator Annabel Thompson. “For the youth, we want to really hit summer camps, day camps, things like that and also things for families.”
Valley Parks and Recreation Director Jon Neal said that through curating recreation programs, Valley will attract young families.
“Youth families are looking to move places,” he said. “More likely than not, our grandparents' generation looked for the location of a job. They wanted to be close to their job. The younger generation has no problem commuting if they have things to do within their neighborhood.”
While weekends in Chambers County are filled with activities and time spent watching sports with family and friends, there are five afternoons during the week when locals need activities.
“We have a fantastic staff here who want Valley to succeed recreational-wise and as a city,” Neal said. “In this area, what are people going to do on Saturdays? They are going to go watch Auburn football or watch Alabama football, and you can tell I'm going to be the outlier as a Tennessee fan. But what do you do the other six days of the week? That's really what we want to target, or the other six months of the year.”
Through curating community programs, Neal explained that Valley Parks and Recreation will connect with the community and connect the community.
“I want people to come rec with us and have great partnerships with them,” he said. “I guess it's more of my competitive nature; I want Valley to be the shining light. I want people to look at us and think, ‘You know, man, when we go rec, we want to rec in Valley.’ And I think the community would really want that too.”
Along with developing more programs and opportunities for locals to enjoy Valley Parks and Recreation, Thompson said the website is in the process of being updated.
“We are working on revamping our website so that it's much easier for you to click and you can register,” she said.
Neal said the new website will be simple enough that people can register in the drive-thru while getting lunch.
“I want it to be as simple as if they're sitting in the Chick-fil-A drive-thru, by the time Chick-fil-A is done with their food, they've been able to register for an event,” he said.
Thompson said that as Valley Parks and Recreation creates more programs and opportunities for the community, locals can stay up to date on new developments through the Valley Parks and Recreation Facebook page.
“I feel like it's been lacking, so now, if there's a need we want to fill it, because the people in Valley deserve to have awesome, amazing programs for their kids and their families to come to,” she said. “I just feel like it's been a need. So we're going to start rolling out new things to see what works and what doesn't work, and hopefully the community will be receptive and give us the feedback that we need to make it better as we go.”
As new programs and events are released, Neal said he is always interested in community feedback to better cater to positive visitor experiences and needs.
“I want the feedback, and I can take constructive criticism,” he said. “I know I'm not going to please everybody. I know a program is not going to please everybody. Our sports program may not please everybody, but we want to at least give the options so that we can do it just as good or better than the area, [with the] addition of making sure we have great partnerships with those areas.”
For more information, visit Valley Parks and Recreation on Facebook or https://cityofvalley.com.
“If you felt, over how many years, that you had a bad experience with Valley sports or Valley recreation, maybe give us another chance,” Neal said. “It's going to be different this time around. And if anybody has any suggestions, concerns, problems, issues or advice, my door is open.”
