Mill Creek MetroParks will be offering a new recreational and sports camp designed for kids ages 6 – 15 at the Wick Recreation Area on June 14, 15, & 16 from 10 am to 3 pm. The camp will encompass the sports of baseball, golf, tennis and volleyball along with fitness and hiking. Instructors will be on hand each day teaching kids the proper fundamentals of each sport as well as the techniques to become a better player in each sport. The hiking portion of the camp will feature outdoor nature education and a brief history of Mill Creek MetroParks. Program instructors will be from the local area and will share a wealth of knowledge in their areas of instruction. “We’re excited to bring this new program to the MetroParks in 2017 as it will encompass all that we have to offer at the Wick Recreation Area. Offering a wide variety of sport and recreation opportunities such as golf, hiking, volleyball, tennis and baseball in one camp creates an opportunity for opening it up to a larger demographic”, says Brian Tolnar, PGA Director of Golf.

Sign-ups are $39/child and are available at the Mill Creek Golf Course Fieldhouse, Wick Par-3 Golf Shop, Ford Nature Center or by calling 330.740.7114 or 330.740.7107.

Mill Creek Golf Course will be holding the Mill Creek Foundation AJGA Junior-Amateur Fundraiser Tournament on Monday, June 19, 2017 at 1:30 pm. The tournament format will be a 4-Player Scramble (3 Player Amateur Teams paired with 1 AJGA All-Star Player) and will include prizes for the winning teams, skill prizes and door prizes. The tournament entry fee of $600.00 per team will include 18 holes of golf with cart fees for 3 players, an invitation to the Junior-Amateur Dinner Reception, golf balls from Taylor-Made, 3 Polo Ralph Lauren shirts with the AJGA Tournament logo, 3 New Era Tournament Caps, 3 McArthur golf towels, & range balls. “What a great opportunity to be able to play with the future of golf and our game. With players coming from all over the world it’s a great experience for the people of the Mahoning Valley to be able to play with these great players at Mill Creek Golf Course right here in the Youngstown area,” says Brian Tolnar, PGA Director of Golf.

Entry Forms are available at the Mill Creek Golf Course Fieldhouse, by calling 330.740.7112 or by emailing Head Professional, Andy Santor atandy@millcreekmetroparks.org.

Mill Creek MetroParks’ Fellows Riverside Gardens (FRG) nearly broke its park visitation record in April 2017. FRG is on track for a record breaking May, too. More than 32,000 community members visited Fellows Riverside Gardens to kick off the spring season. That is just 69 visitors shy of the garden’s record year set in 2014. MetroParks Director Aaron Young says that his goal is to grow even further.

 “It’s great when you can approach record-setting attendance at a park,” Young said. “But we’re not done yet; we want to see new residents using the MetroParks for the first time and past visitors coming back again and again.”

FRG is a free public garden located at the northern end of Mill Creek Park in Youngstown, Ohio. It features 12 acres of landscape with diverse and colorful plant displays. FRG has the D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor Center making the garden a destination for all seasons. April through early May this year, the visitor center had 49,234 community members stop into the center. That is up from 46,335 in 2016. There’s also Kravitz’s Garden Café, which is open from 10am-4pm Tuesdays-Sundays offering a variety of quiche, entrees and beverages.

 “Our goal is to provide park and recreation space while being responsive to community needs,” Young said. “The services offered at Fellows Riverside Gardens, and the community’s response to them, show that we’re on the right track.”

Learn more about Fellows Riverside Gardens and all of Mill Creek MetroParks at MillCreekMetroParks.org.

Mill Creek MetroParks will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, May 26 at 2 p.m. to announce the grand opening of the new wet playground as part of the Children’s Play Area at the James L. Wick, Jr. Recreation Area.

The wet playground is the fourth and final playground to be constructed as part of The Juliana Kurinka Children’s Play Area. It is a zero-depth water play environment which features various interactive water play elements which include bubblers, sprays, cannons and dumping buckets. This variety will offer diverse water play opportunities, maximizing play for all ages and abilities with a main area for older children and a distinct area for younger children, while still providing opportunities for inter-generational play. The wet playground will also provide children with interactive opportunities for development of individual motor skills and collaborative, social play with others as well as providing dynamic auditory and tactile sensory experiences. “The Wet Playground was envisioned in the 2007 Master Plan for Wick Recreation Area, so it’s exciting to see this playground constructed as evidence of an effective planning process, thus providing this new play opportunity to many MetroParks visitors”, says MetroParks project manager Stephen Avery.

The project was funded by the Juliana Kurinka Trust, Fitness Together 5K, Rocky Ridge Neighborhood Association Maple Syrup sales & Mill Creek MetroParks Green Cathedral Half Marathon.

For questions and more information, please call Mill Creek MetroParks Administration Office at 330.702.3000.

The Environment Standing Committee to the Board of Park Commissioners of Mill Creek MetroParks, will meet on Friday, August 4, 2017, at 10 a.m., in Classroom A at the MetroParks Farm in Canfield.