A Summer Of Fun At The Parks And Rec Department

Monday, August 18th, 2025

Schools are again in session in northwest Georgia which implies probably the most profitable summers within the historical past of the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department is within the books. From quite a few summer season camps for teenagers to summer season sports activities leagues to the return of enjoyable within the solar on the Rec Pool, Dalton’s parks noticed document attendance and participation this summer season. But the DPRD’s employees is not getting an opportunity to relaxation, they’re already arduous at work preparing for the autumn and winter seasons. In addition to the entire choices Dalton residents get pleasure from annually, the DPRD can be working so as to add new applications and courses that might develop into new favorites. 

“Recreation is not just the bat and ball that we roll out. There are so many more avenues to it,” stated DPRD director Steve Roberts. “I think there are even some things we’ll try to do to introduce people to maybe some new hobbies, maybe some new interests that they’ve never been exposed to. We’re going to be looking for some outside of the box classes too.”

Happy Campers

The Parks and Recreation Department packed lots of enjoyable and video games right into a collection of summer season camps for Dalton’s children this summer season. They even managed to sneak in a bit of training with out the youngsters noticing or seeming to thoughts. The division’s camp choices included a summer-long enjoyable camp, another camp for teenagers with particular wants, week-long camps for sports activities, and maybe hottest, a fishing camp.

Caption: Mario Soria reveals off his catch of the day on the DPRD’s Fishing Camp

The Summer Fun Camp on the Mack Gaston Community Center had 70 members. The program ran for six weeks, however children may enroll on a weekly foundation to permit households to schedule holidays or household time with out losing cash on camp tuition. The programming for the camp included the same old enjoyable and video games across the rec heart, together with time within the pool and on the splash pad. The camp additionally included enrichment from the neighborhood. Campers took half in STEM workshops with Georgia Power, a drama workshop with Dalton’s Artistic Civic Theater to create a efficiency, in addition to karate courses, and artwork courses. The campers additionally took subject journeys into the neighborhood together with a tour of the Dalton Municipal Airport the place they bought to climb aboard just a few airplanes and find out how they fly. The campers additionally constructed their very own backyard beds and realized to develop greens.

“They took part in building the bed, filling it with dirt, learning how to plant, learning how to harvest, and learning how to, you know, keep the weeds out,” stated Craig Cady, the DPRD’s program supervisor. “The kids really loved it.” 

Camp Rising Sun and Camp Sunshine, the DPRD’s summer season camp providing for teenagers with particular wants, took half in lots of the identical subject journeys and studying actions because the Summer Fun Camp. Britni Connell from the DPRD’s therapeutic recreation program coordinated the camps. 

“They go about the same amount of time and they do a lot of the same trips. They went out to the airport, they took part in the gardening and planting, and they had a carnival day,” Cady stated. “We got some carnival equipment and brought it (into the gym) with cotton candy and popcorn machines, and we put games in the gym. The kids had a really good time, and a lot of the times we would do some overlaps where we’d get some stuff like bouncy houses and we’d let both (the Summer Fun Camp and Camp Rising Sun and Sunshine) come in.” 

The Summer Sport Camp gave campers an opportunity to play totally different sports activities every day. DPRD employees served as coaches and referees for the motion, instructing new abilities and in addition organizing play. The DPRD additionally provided week-long camps for tennis and pickleball instruction. The fishing camp at Haig Mill Lake Park, nonetheless, proved to be within the highest demand.

“We partnered with Bass Pro Shops, and they supplied a fishing rod and a small tackle box (that campers got to keep),” Cady stated. “We advertised the class and set registration to open at 12:01 am on July 1st. By the time I got to work that morning at 8:30, the camp had already filled up.”

Cady stated the division is already planning to double the dimensions of the camp subsequent summer season to permit for extra members. 

“It seemed extremely hot, but every kid caught at least one fish. To be honest, I think most kids caught multiple fish,” Cady stated. “The feeling when a child’s in a position to carry a fish in and the boldness it provides a child to do one thing like that… and the youngsters are at all times, at the present time, they’ve their telephones out, and every little thing must be instant. So most likely the one factor we taught them is typically you have to get your fingers soiled with the bait and persistence is often rewarded. And they began seeing that while you’d depart (the road) on the market and also you did not run off to one thing else and you did not have a distraction… you’d succeed.

Making A Splash

The John Davis Recreation Center’s pool re-opened for the primary time in two years this summer season after being shut down for building. The neighborhood responded in an enormous approach, filling up open swim days with lots of enjoyable within the solar. More than 6,000 folks hit the pool throughout the pool’s abbreviated season, averaging 123 folks per day. 

The return of the pool additionally meant the return of swimming classes, and of 390 whole spots for brand new swimmers the DPRD crammed 388. 

Community Gardens Thrive

The new neighborhood gardens on Trammell Street and at Lakeshore Park have been nice successes, and the cultivation has unfold past the borders of the parks. Allison Mitchell, the DPRD’s neighborhood backyard specialist, has performed month-to-month courses to show residents the way to higher are inclined to their very own gardens, in addition to working with college students at Westwood Elementary School, which is a neighbor of the Trammel Street Garden, to assist develop vegetation on their campus as nicely. 

“They’re working on beautifying and enhancing their courtyard through outdoor learning. She works with every single grade at Westwood to teach them how to beautify their area,” Cady stated. 

Caption: Garden beds on the Trammell Street Community Garden are blooming abundantly and plenty of are bearing fruit. The backyard opened for cultivation in May

The month-to-month gardening courses will broaden to weekly courses on Saturdays in September because the harvest season will get nearer. The outside classroom program on the neighborhood backyard has led to the event of fairly just a few inexperienced thumbs. 

“(The classes) talk about pollinator gardens. They’ll focus on what are the local plants that are native to the area to educate people on what’s natural in this area and what may or may not be an invasive species, and just kind of teaching people how to grow and harvest their own food,” Cady stated. “Allison is very knowledgeable and does a fantastic job,”

New Programs And Partnerships

The DPRD has created a brand new program this summer season with the Dalton-Whitfield Public Library. On Saturdays this summer season, the “Storyventures” program introduced a storytime guide studying to a Dalton park with video games or crafts to boost the teachings of the story. 

“It’s been very popular. We hosted at Civitan and Brookwood Park, and Lizzie Stuckey does a fantastic job of bringing the Dalton-Whitfield Library out into the community and utilizing our parks in the process,” Cady stated. 

The DPRD has additionally labored with native homeschool organizations to create a lot of enrichment courses that college students can take part in. The courses are held mid-day when amenities should not in heavy use, and sophistication matters have included health and wellness, artwork historical past, arts and crafts via phonics, bucket drumming, and even “recorder karate.” 

“I learned that’s not karate with a recorder, but they use a recorder to learn the basic skills of the breathing techniques for karate,” Cady stated. “After COVID… there’s more of a demand there (for homeschool programs) and we thought we could offer a program that could supply that demand.” 

Karate can be one of many DPRD’s new applications, together with weekly Zumba courses. The DPRD has additionally partnered with BLOOM, an area non-profit group established to help households of youngsters with particular wants within the Dalton neighborhood. The group hosts play dates at Al Rollins Park, and in addition hosted a faculty useful resource expo on the Mack Gaston Community Center final month. 

“It’s really working with the families of the special needs community to let them know that, you know, we’re all in this together,” Cady stated. “We’re all part of the community.” 

Numbers On The Rise

The DPRD is wanting ahead to considered one of its busiest fall sports activities seasons ever. There are practically 2,550 children signed as much as take part in soccer, drafted or workforce soccer, cheerleading, cross nation, or volleyball in Dalton’s leagues. 

“To put that (number of participants) in perspective, (in 2017) that would be consistent with what we would do in a whole year. And we’re doing that in the fall,” stated Steve Roberts. “I mean, we have 990 drafted soccer players. We have 770 team soccer players. So, we’ve got 1,700-,800 kids playing soccer. We’ve got another 300 playing football. We’ve got another 300 playing volleyball, which… I don’t know of any volleyball program to hit that kind of number other than travel programs because we also have we have two volleyball sessions in the year. We do have a spring and fall program and (fall) is actually our smaller one at 300.”

“Everything we’ve got is growing,” Roberts continued. “We’re on pace to serve probably in the neighborhood of 6,500 to 6,700 kids depending on how winter sports registrations are. The community that Dalton is now, we are serving very well.”