The Farmington Parks and Recreation Department provides recreational opportunities, sports and special events for the community. The department is made up of 3 full time employees, 1 Part Time Adult/Senior Program Coordinator and 15-20 seasonal staff members. Some of the programs offered by the department include: after school program for grades 1-5, after hours programs for grades 5-8, toddler classes, senior bingo and trips, summer camp, vacation camp, karate and many other year round activities. Special events include our annual egg hunt, trick or treat parade, family nights at Fernald park, and Hay Day..
The Recreation office is located in the Town Hall located at 531 Main Street. Office hours are Monday – Friday 7:00am - 5:30pm. For more information about current programs or upcoming events please call 603-755-2405 or e-mail us at rpconway@metrocast.net
Parks and Recreation
2008 Report
To the Citizens, Families and Children of Farmington,2008 brought more changes to the staff of the Parks and Recreation Department. The current staff includes Rick Conway- Director, Alisha Reinhard- Assistant Director, Carla Smith- Program Supervisor, and Kellie Chase- Part-time Senior Coordinator. There are also many part- time seasonal employees as well as a number of volunteers that help make our programs successful.
The Parks and Recreation Department celebrated its 27th Annual Hay Day this year. Hay Day has turned into a weekend long celebration with both adult and children’s entertainment on Friday evening followed by fireworks, an action packed Saturday schedule ending with the annual bed race. You can’t forget the Pancake Breakfast on Sunday morning sponsored by the Farmington Fire Department. Hay Day has turned into a huge summer family event. We all look forward to seeing all the families this summer for the 28th Annual Hay Day.
Another special event that has become very popular is the Family Nights at Fernald Park. With six weeks of entertainment on every Wednesday during the summer at Fernald Park this FREE program was packed with onlookers and gave families the opportunities to have an evening full of fun activities. We are already planning for 2009 and we hope to see you there.
The 5th Annual Daddy Daughter Dance was a sell out once again and we would like to thank all the families for attending. We also had the Mom and Son Activity Night which was a big hit as well. Our Fall Festival was a giant success there was a DJ, dancing, games, and food; a great event for the entire family. All the Easter eggs where found at our yearly Flashlight Egg Hunt, with over 250 participant’s vying for the prize of who found the most eggs.
The Senior Programs where filled with many activities including trips to two fairs, a hot air balloon ride, a trip to see the Blue Man Group and every Wednesday we host the ever popular BINGO. With senior programs growing, we can look back and see that seniors where busier than ever with no slowing down in sight. Thank you to all the seniors for participating in our programs and you can look forward to more activities to come.
Summer time is by far our busiest time of the year. We have four camps in the summer; the first is Planet Playground. This camp is two days a week for children 3, 4, and 5 years old. It gives parents the opportunity to have a break in the middle of the day and allows the children to be active and learn social skills in a safe environment. Camp Creation is a five day a week program for children in grades 1-5. This program took two- three trips per week, and the staff scheduled fun events for the non- trip days. Adventure camp is a four day a week program (Monday- Thursday) for children in grades 5- 10. This camp attends a trip every day and allows the campers more freedom by using a buddy system with check- in times, as opposed to Camp Creation where the children
stay in groups with counselors. The fourth summer program is the Teen Trip program for children grades 5-12. This program gives children the opportunity to sign up for individual trips twice a week without committing to the entire summer. On Tuesdays the Teen Trip accompanied the Adventure Camp on their scheduled trip and on Wednesdays the Teens went on an “adventure” based trips such as outdoor rock climbing and surfing.
The After School Program for children in grades 1-5 continues to be popular with parents and students. This program runs the entire school year and is currently full with 43 children enrolled in the program. Participants are currently picked up at the school by Recreation staff members and brought to the Town Hall to participate in a variety of games, sports, crafts and special activities. This program is offered every year and registration takes place in May. In addition to the After School Program we run many different activities after school for students in grades K-8. Some of the programs offered in 2008 included arts and crafts, special holiday themed classes, cooking, sewing and many other programs open to students during non-school hours.
2008 also brought a computer lab to the Recreation Department. The computers are accessible at no cost; for internet and word processing from 8:00am- 4:30pm Monday- Friday. The money for the computers was raised through donations and proceeds from the Dancing with the Stars event that we held in January. This year the proceeds from Dancing with the Stars will help off-set the cost of the Recreation Departments youth and senior programs.
In closing, the Parks and Recreation Department would like to thank the Board of Selectman, Fire, Police, Public Works and Water Departments for their continued support of our programs, all of our sponsors, the Library, Puddledock Press, Ed Mullen, Channel 26 Community Television, the 500 Boys and Girls Club, Farmington School Department and Bus Transportation and to all Farmington Residents and especially to those who sign up for programs early so we do not have to cancel them.
Respectfully yours,
Rick Conway
Director of Parks and Recreation
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