Rockville Named Playful City

Rockville was named a “Playful City” for the second year in a row as part of a national program that honors cities, towns and communities across America that are working to ensure that all children have easy access to balanced and active play in their communities.

The city was one of 241 communities honored by the KaBOOM! Playful City USA program. In addition to Rockville’s “Playful City” designation, the city has received recognition from other national organizations for its commitment to high quality recreation and parks programs. The city is a:

• Let’s Move City, designated by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Raising a Healthier Generation of Kids Campaign
  Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) City, by the Institute for Public Health Innovation
• Tree City USA (26 consecutive years), by the Arbor Day Foundation

The Mayor and Council’s support of these programs continued with their June 22 proclamation of July as Recreation and Parks Month in Rockville, celebrating all the ways that the city’s recreation programs, parks and facilities make life better for the community. Nearly 90 percent of city residents rank Rockville’s athletic fields, recreation centers, recreational programs, special events and programs for seniors as excellent or good in the most recent Community Survey (2014).

As part of this month long celebration of Recreation and Parks, the city is recognizing a few of its partners that help to ensure residents and visitors have high quality recreation programs to participate in, while keeping participant fees at moderate levels.

Some of those partners include:

• The Rockville Recreation and Parks Foundation, whose mission is to financially support recreation and parks activities and facilities
•  The Montgomery County Road Runners Club, which provides assistance to the city’s youth sports programs as well as the Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest and Rockville 10K/5K
•  EU Services, which has supported programs, services and provided scholarships at Rockville’s Lincoln Park Community Center for more than 20 years.

In addition, the Rockville Recreation Fund provides about $50,000 each year in financial support to Rockville residents who would otherwise not be able to participate in city recreation programs. Proceeds from the Twilight Runfest are the main source of support of the Rec Fund. The man behind a great deal of the fundraising for the Rec Fund is Alan Tetervin of the Rotary Club. Alan has been the lead fundraiser for the Twilight Runfest for more than 10 years and has raised more than $500,000 for the Rec Fund during this time.

Learn more about Rockville’s recreation programs, parks and playgrounds at www.rockvillemd.gov/recreation.

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