ASK THE MAYOR
Aquatic Center, city parks blessings for community
MAYOR PHILLIP SPENRATH

Spring is right around the corner, and hundreds of El Campo citizens and neighbors are headed for some leisure activities at one of our many city supported recreational facilities.

Recently, the El Campo Aquatic Center offered an Open House and "free swim" to all of our area residents. During the Open House, adult water aerobics were conducted in a portion of the larger "lap pool." The hot tub and remaining lanes of the lap pool were being utilized by adults and young people alike. The slide, wading pool and additional water areas were occupied with moms, dads and children of all ages. In addition to splashing and swimming, the Aquatic Center staff provided snacks and drinks for all participants and their guests.

El Campo is truly blessed to have such an incredible asset located within our community. Many of our adult citizens have been actively utilizing our Aquatic Center as a therapeutic means of losing weight, improving their physical condition, and positively re-enforcing their psychological confidence and sense of social well-being.

Our local Aquatic Center has greatly contributed to the promotion and fame of El Campo as many of our younger swimming athletes have earned State and National Recognition through participation on area High School and Youth swim teams. Most recently, Meredith Bard's spectacular performance at the Texas High School State Swim Meet further reinforced El Campo's ever increasing reputation of building and producing championship caliber swimmers.

If water is not your cup of tea, an afternoon drive by most of our community parks and school grounds will find hundreds of young boys and girls hitting baseballs and catching pop-flies. El Campo has become renowned world-wide for producing some of the most competitive and successful youth softball and baseball teams.

Recently, I was invited out to Rotary Park to watch over a hundred young ladies participate in El Campo High School's Varsity Softball Tournament. For three days, 12 teams and their families watched games, shopped at our local grocery and convenience stores and purchased numerous family meals from both our fast food and sit-down dining establishments.

While Rotary Park primarily serves as a forum for athletes of all ages to play the game, the City's foresight to build and maintain such an important "quality of life" facility has indirectly served as a catalyst for bringing significant amounts of retail income into our local economy. In addition, many of our visiting softball participants and their families were afforded the opportunity to discover more of our great community during "between-game" intermissions.

If the outdoors isn't your cup of tea, then you can stop by our highly acclaimed Boys & Girls Club and try to catch one of the Championship Games being held at the conclusion of their annual Youth Basketball Leagues. For the past few months, elementary age students have been "tipping the ball off" on nearly every night of the week.

In addition to basketball, the Boys & Girls Club offers our young people the opportunity to participate in boxing, volleyball, swimming and soccer. El Campo's Club offers an incredible science team, after-school tutorial program and many other academic and social opportunities.

Alamo, Evans, Willie Bell and Friendship Parks have been the home for many family reunions, birthday parties, and weekend picnics. These parks have hosted Martin Luther King Day, Flag Day and Christmas celebrations. More recently, local civic organizations like the El Campo Lions Club have utilized our downtown Alamo Park for the distribution of their well known hamburger fundraiser dinners.

El Campo is definitely a city on the move. As evidenced by all of the new construction taking place along our West Loop and Northern SH 71 intersection, El Campo continues to maintain strong growth and increased potential for attracting more economic development.

And while some people argue that money makes the world go around, let us not forget the significant impact and necessity of our "quality of life" facilities. Our local parks, clubs and aquatic center were never intended to, nor expected to, generate financial profits.

My fellow citizens, we are truly blessed to live in a community that offers so many opportunities for physical growth and social wellbeing.

- Comments or questions may be sent to askthemayor@sbcglobal.net.