Dear PRPS Members & Friends,

The Keystone Fund has been restored!

Although the Governor still needs to sign off on it, both the House and Senate have voted yes in favor of the budget bill, keeping the Keystone Fund completely intact for FY 12-13. We have been working tirelessly on this issue since February and I think I can speak for everyone in breathing a big sigh of relief. Projects will still be taking place and our communities will continue to provide safe and close to home recreation opportunities - from trails to playgrounds to swimming pools! Thank you to each and every one of you for helping us in this battle by contacting your local legislators and reminding them on the importance of the fund.

Please keep all of those contacts handy as we have been forewarned that this process will most assuredly need to take place again next year. At our recent board retreat, the board voted to set up an Advocacy Fund that would be created from our PSECU incentive fund dollars from this fiscal year. This will give us the ability to hire a lobbyist who can help us assess the issue earlier. Keep inviting your legislators to project sites that have been funded by Keystone and it will make next year's efforts be a little easier.

June has been a good month for PRPS, not only with the success of the restoration of Keystone, but also concluding a successful Therapeutic Recreation Institute, and by having a great start to the summer consignment ticket season. We appreciate the work of Karen Hammond and Kirk Rakos as chairs of the TRI this year as well as their committee! With close to 200 attendees the comments have all been positive! Next year's event will be taking place at a new location, The Doubletree in Lancaster June 4-7, 2013. The PRPS staff has been busy preparing for the end of the fiscal year by closing out projects and preparing the 2012 Membership Directory and Buyers Guide, which goes to the printer next week and will be posted online the week of July 9th. Stay tuned!  This month also saw the presentation of the Governmental Award on June 8, 2012 to Representative Bill Adolph. See a quick picture on his website:http://www.williamadolph.com/. Bill was instrumental in seeing the Keystone Fund restored and if you have a chance he deserves a call or email.

As you are knee-deep in your summer programs, there have been some interesting conversations in the park and recreation and education world over the last week regarding sunscreen. We'll be monitoring this but would like to know from you if your summer programs have prohibited the bringing of sunscreen by the participants. The most recent article was about a school that has a policy in place like that and on their field day two children ended up with second degree burns. Related to this is an article about sun safety on playgrounds that has some valuable information for you to remember and share with your staff.

This will probably be the last time I mention my chickens to all of you as my time with PRPS as Executive Director will conclude at the end of July. Unfortunately, while we were on vacation last week something killed six of our chickens. My children were very sad with this loss but we will be getting new chicks to replace them and have made provisions to better protect the rest.   Just yesterday I saw a fox not far from our house but we are more suspicious of a raccoon that has been frequenting our deck. A feeble attempt at capturing him last night proved how cunning they can be. The cage was dragged across our deck in an attempt to get to the peanut butter inside without going in. Although we aren't giving up, we need to develop a new strategy.

In closing, a reminder that July is Parks & Recreation month! Check out NRPA's website for some fabulous template's with the slogan, Get Wild! I'm sure all of your creative juices will be inspired by that.

Sincerely,

Kim

Kim Woodward

Executive Director

July is Park and Recreation Month, and it's looking to be a great one! The National Recreation and Park Association has distributed materials and information, and are receiving positive feedback about fun programs and events taking place to celebrate the month.

You can get involved by encouraging your community members to Get Wild with Geocaching, pledge to "get wild" in July, and most importantly visit their local park or participate in recreation during the month! Feel free to post/share the Social Media Badge on your pages or use it as your "profile" image for Facebook and Twitter during July if you are so inclined.  In your posts, you can link to www.nrpa.org/july

or use this special shortened link to drive people to the information we have available on the website: http://bit.ly/parkrecmonth.

Summer is upon us, and with summer comes outdoor activities and playgrounds full of kids! While summer is a great time to enjoy the outdoors, it is also a time to be mindful of the dangers that come with the rising mercury. This week's extreme temperatures in the mid-90s across the commonwealth necessitate parents, coaches, park supervisors, sports officials, and park and recreation professionals exercise not only the usual caution but also pay attention to some less commonly considered dangers.

The most commonly thought about issues are avoiding sunburn applying plenty of sunscreen, and according to the American Red Cross, avoiding heat emergencies by:

• Avoiding being outdoors in the hottest part of the day
• Changing activity level according to the temperature
• Taking frequent breaks
• Dressing appropriately for the environment (cool, light clothing)
• Drinking large amounts of fluids before, during, and after activity.

But as we know, sometimes these recommendations aren't enough. To read more click here.

As park and recreation professionals, we're always looking for ways to foster healthy lifestyles, appreciation for nature, connections to our parks and appreciation for the outdoors in young people. The National Recreation and Park Society has partnered with the Get to Know Society to help us connect young people to nature and wildlife in our parks.

The Get to Know Program has been inspiring connections between children and nature in the outdoors for over a decade. Providing young people with opportunities to spend more time outdoors is a priority of the Get to Know Contest. The motto of the Contest is "Connect. Create. Celebrate."

The contest invites youth to create art, writing, photography, music, or videos inspired by wildlife at a local park and the Get to Know Society has reached out to PRPS to bring this contest to our communities. The contest is encourages young people (19 and under) to build meaningful personal connections to wildlife through the arts. The Get to Know society will track all entries and send entries back to the local parks when the contest closes in July, so that you can showcase youth in your area who participated.

 For more information, please visit their website at www.get-to-know.org. You will also find ready-made web banners, buttons, copy, PSAs, promotional videos, downloadable flyers, posters, and other handy materials on their online promotion kit: www.get-to-know.org./contest/us/promotionmedia-kit/.

You can also view the contest's online gallery, where you can check out the entries that have been submitted to date: www.get-to-know.org/gallery/.

For more information, please contact Charlotte Laville, Project Assistant, at 250.980.3969 or claville@gettoknow.ca

Connecting Susquehanna Greenway River Towns
 

The Susquehanna Greenway will be implementing a Mini-Grant program to fund small projects that align with the goals of the partnership and advance strategic approaches to both conservation and connections to the river.

The theme for 2012-2013 is: Connecting Susquehanna Greenway River Towns 

A total of $60,000 in grants will be awarded to the projects that have the greatest benefit and overlap between partner interests. Individual grant awards will be limited to a maximum of $5,000 for Planning grants and $10,000 for Implementation grants.

Funding for this program is provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCNR).

More Information on the Mini-Grant Program

Mini-Grant Instructions and FAQs

Mini-Grant Application 

Please contact Bridget Kane at (570) 522-7275 for more information.

SAVE THE DATE! 

66th Annual PRPS Conference

March 23-27, 2013

Hershey Lodge, Hershey, PA

The Road to Making a Difference Starts with PRPS!

 Click here for the conference session proposal form.

Non-PRPS Trainings

Tree Ordinance Workshop

Thursday, July 19, 2012 9:00 am - 4:15 pm

Morgantown Holiday Inn, Morgantown, PA 19543

Cost: $85

ISA and PA LA ceus available

Due to popular request, Dr William Elmendorf, Associate Professor of Urban Forestry, Pennsylvania State University, will introduce land use planning and regulatory policy concepts. He will concentrate on environmental ordinances from a natural resource planning perspective and welcomes the sharing of municipal code for real life examples. Expect to learn of the powers given from the Pennsylvania Municipal Planning Code and the anatomy of an effective ordinance.

Attorney Gilbert High, known nationally for his extensive knowledge of municipal and tree law, will compliment the previous presentations with liability and legalities. A local municipal official follows up with real life perspective among other speakers. Bring your questions and experiences!

For more information and to register, go to http://agsci.psu.edu/tree-ordinance

Leaders and coaches tend to feel that if they aren't doing something dramatic - actively managing something - they aren't adding value. Stanford Business School Professor Jeff Pfeffer refers to this phenomenon in the business world as the "Romance of Leadership." The romantic view of leaders is that they are supposed to be decisive, active and "hands-on."

The problem is that the romance of leadership often leads coaches to over-coach during games. Sometimes the best thing you can do during a game is get out of the way and allow the players to execute all the great skills and strategies you have worked on together in practice.

The Mentor Program is a professional development program for Young Professionals and First Time Congress Attendees. Click here for the letter.