States' Money Woes Roll into U.S. Neighborhoods
from Reuters via Forbes
Parks, ball fields and libraries are prime targets for local-government budget cutters in Florida, one of the dozens of U.S. states where fiscal crises playing out in state capitals are now rattling neighborhoods. “What gets cut first are parks and recreation, libraries and museums,” said executive director Lynn Tipton of the Florida City and County Management Association, a group of 550 county and municipal managers scattered through the state. “They are cut first because they are considered luxuries and not vital, like water and sewers and police and fire.” More

U.S. Interior Focuses $11 Million on Parks
from the United Press International
The U.S. Department of the Interior Sunday announced plans to spend more than $11 million enhancing national park units, wildlife refuges and tribal lands. More

L.A. Parks Program Helps Kids, Economy
from American Public Media
State programs are being cut all across California, but one Los Angeles program is actually expanding. Summer Night Lights keeps parks open until midnight in some of the city's toughest neighborhoods. More

Illinois Advocate to Receive National Humanitarian Award
from The State Journal-Register
Butch Elzea has helped raise millions of dollars in his role as a project leader for Edwin Watts Southwind Park in Springfield, Ill. He’s a former winner of The State Journal-Register’s First Citizen Award, and he has a long list of philanthropic work, including volunteer work with Sparc and the Springfield Art Association. But when Elzea found out this summer he was selected to receive the National Recreation and Park Association’s 2009 National Humanitarian Award, he was taken by surprise. More

Pennsylvania Adventure Camp Program Gets Urban Kids into the Outdoors
from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
When asked what she enjoyed about spending a week in the outdoors, Lena Bradley, a 12-year-old Carrick, Pa., resident summed it up nicely: "I don't have to be in the house and I get to be with my friends." That is precisely the idea behind Adventure Camp, a week of excursions that expose city kids to the pleasures of kayaking, fishing, rock climbing and other outdoor activities. The program brings kids ages 12 to 15 from urban neighborhoods around the city to state parks in Western Pennsylvania. More

Back from the Verge of Closure, Illinois Pool Doing Just Swimmingly
from the Southtown Star
Palos Heights, Ill., resident Linda O'Brien and her 6-year-old daughter Maggie put on their swimsuits and head to Palos Pool most summer days, as they have been since Maggie was a baby. So when the Palos Heights City Council voted in 2007 to close the pool after voters rejected a tax increase to replace it with an aquatics center, O'Brien knew she had to fight to keep it open. More

Mural Project an Education, Job for Washington Students
from the Kent Reporter
As far as summer jobs go, getting paid to paint murals isn’t a bad way to make money. “It’s pretty fun” said Anthony Rowe, 17, as he took a break from moving panels to be painted as part of a new mural he helped create. Rowe is part of the King County, Wash., Work Training Program, which has partnered with Kent, Wash., Parks and Recreation to give 14 incoming high-school seniors an opportunity to receive job training and to work with a professional artist on two new murals being installed in Kent. More

When Did Summertime Play Go Indoors?
from the Chicago Tribune
It's no secret that even in the warm, sunny days of summer, children don't play outside like they used to. U.S. children spend 50 percent less time outdoors than they did 20 years ago, according to the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The lack of running or biking or splashing around in the sprinkler is one likely factor in rising childhood obesity rates, said education professor Rhonda Clements, who conducted a 2004 study, "An Investigation on the Status of Outdoor Play," for Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. In it, 85 percent of mothers reported their children spend less time playing outside than they did growing up. More

Pedal Pushers
from The Windsor Star
Learning how to ride a bicycle was a major milestone for Joshua Gaudette and his family. The 14-year-old Tecumseh boy has a learning disability and low muscle tone, which made the task of balancing himself on a two-wheeler nearly impossible for most of his life. But when he went to the Lose The Training Wheels camp in Columbus, Ohio, last year, he was pedalling away within a week. More

Accessible Gardens Sprouting Up for People with Disabilities
from The Herald Journal
Community gardens are places where locals can grow food and harvest friendships but Kate Stephens said often times, those gardens are not easily accessible to people with physical disabilities. For residents that have physical limitations, members of the Utah Conservation Corps have changed that by constructing table top gardens, raised gardens and adaptive gardening tools available for use at the Cache Valley, Utah, Community Garden. More

California Seeks Sponsors for State Parks
from The Los Angeles Times
California state parks officials and nonprofit organizations scrambled Wednesday to find funding and possibly new corporate sponsors to keep as many as 100 parks and beaches open after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger slashed an additional $6.2 million out of the state parks system. Budget cuts also suspended a land conservation program that has been hailed as a key to preventing sprawl and easing economic pressure on farmers and ranchers.More

Twitter Updates Encourage Young People to Visit U.K. National Parks
from The Telegraph
The Campaign for National Parks is launching a three year project using the latest technology to target younger people and ethnic minorities. Twitter updates, Facebook pages, iPod-guided walks and YouTube are being used in a new campaign to encourage more young people to visit the countryside. More