We missed you at our third anniversary party the other week — just kidding; of course we would never have a celebration without inviting you. This one kind of slipped by as time usually does, but it’s hard to believe it has been three years since our grand opening in June of 2010. A lot of people have crossed the threshold since that time and while the numbers have somewhat stabilized, they continue to climb in the various areas (programs, fitness, aquatics) which is what we strive to encourage.
We should probably start thinking about a five-year party as it will be upon us faster than you think. If you have any ideas, drop us a comment card; we are always open to reasonable suggestions. Notice I said reasonable — no Rolling Stones, Tom Jones or anything like that.
Summer camps are booming. We finished our art camp, which had some pretty innovative stuff happening, and we just finished our first Sweaty Boys Summer Camp which is, well, you can probably guess, but the kids should sleep well at night once our instructors have finished running them through the paces. Add to that 30-plus degrees outside and yes, there will be sweat. We still have a bunch more camps happening so check out the leisure guide or online at www.rdck.bc.ca/creston.
Last week we also had our Drowning Prevention Week activities in the pool, where participants learned a raft of information about hypothermia, lifejackets and boating, as well as other basic information intended to let you enjoy but keep you alive in and around water, which happens to be fairly prevalent in our area. I’m not sure if you have heard but there is a spike in drowning deaths currently happening in B.C. — this is not a good thing. Currently, we are at 43 drowning deaths this year compared to 25 this time last year, so be careful out there!
Other things you may have noticed around the community complex are a repair to our parking lot, where a narrow strip running north-south has been replaced. This repair was a small chunk of a large section of the original pavement, which predates me and which wasn’t budgeted to replace as part of the facility enhancement project. For those of you that remember, it was where the dividing strip of no-posts sat between the lampposts. We have also added a bulletin board at the top of the field stairs by the bus stop for various programs and events down on either the baseball or soccer field.
Finally, there are some new bike racks just to the right of the main entry for you to secure your Schwinn DX to (if you happen to be Peewee Herman). They are kind of funky looking black hoops with our logo cut into the metal so some people aren’t really sure what they are for, but rest assured, you can lock your bike to them. Hopefully, in some small way, it encourages a more active approach to the building.
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.