Providence Recreational Advisory Board-Monday, May 5, 2025-6:00 PM

Oh.

Alright. I have to prepare so you can update it before we answer this. Cool.

Hey, everybody. Today is twenty twenty and we are here at Please follow-up. Chairman Simon. Present.

Vice chair Sanchez. Present. Councilwoman Vargas is absent. Jenna Lafayette.

Present.

Kenneth Phillips is absent. We have three present and two absent. We have a form.

Thank you. Well, welcome everybody to the folks. We're excited to be here tonight. We're joined by our esteemed department recreation director, Steven Grace. Thank you.

He always with us. We had couple of items on the agenda tonight. One's a presentation from the Davey Loeb staff on programming and exciting renovations that are gonna be going on in this facility, which I I've been seeing here this week and some great plans. And then we'll have a presentation for Greg and Grace on the mayor's proposed budget for next year, and we can talk about and discuss what you wanna do other support or beat that in whatever ways you want to. And then we have an update on soccer and spring programming.

We can then follow-up followed by. So so if that sounds good, everybody will dive right into it. And I wanna recognize here who's the director that they do at the recreation center and assistant director Danielle That's. As well. Before you guys get started, we have been to, at this point, every recreation center except for baby loaves and the super over by the classroom we go to.

So we are rounding the corner. I made a point to get into all the recreation centers here for you guys directly to get the tour, so we get a real good sense of what is going on in the department here. I was today, but we'll start, and I love this recreation center except with that that thing that you guys see in the record. Basketball championships. I don't hold that against you too much, but but I'm sure that director Lindsay will get into the phenomenal basketball program that they had here at Baby Ropes that.

All that said, take it away, guys. Before you start, though, on behalf of the entire board, just wanna say thank you guys for all that you're doing. I've seen firsthand, you know, the number of teams kind of in the stores and the ongoing job that you guys do. We often have limited resources. One of the things that we are trying to do is just support you guys and and you guys, you know, tools and resources.

Wow. We know that it's Mhmm. Incredible services to the community and the city. And so I always start out by just thanking you guys for the work that you guys. Are doing.

It's amazing to see what you guys do. Was very appreciated. So thank you, and look forward to this.

Perfect. Good evening, everyone. My name is Anthony, and I'm the director here at. We've been proud of serving here at the Center for twenty years together, not just the staff. It was proud of the community.

We didn't just start working here. We grew up here. This is gonna help raise us, shape us, and give us purpose. And now we're giving the same purpose back to the next generation that's coming up. At Davie Lopes, we do allow our interest from the sports leagues and summer camps.

We build family. We teach kids how to believe in themselves. We host programs that feed, uplift, and empower. Whether it's a basketball game, hard pass in the park, or just a safe place to be a kid at a school, we show love, structure, and consistency. Our staff isn't as dedicated.

They're living proof that the programs here work. Many of them came to be David Hoops themselves. They're now college students and athletes and young kids in their own right. I wish you can bring this down the road, but taking my case mechanic for example, What makes us proud isn't just where they are now is that they both came back to work and. You know, back to the same chance they've now started.

They come back every single summer. Everything we do is rooted in pride for our people, our neighborhood, and the legacy we inherit from the people before us. We've taken what the community leaders before us taught us, the values, the discipline, love, and applied it to our new mission. We're continuing their work in a power way, literally the way that we initiated, but their lessons always at the heart of what we get. Speaking of dedication, I wanna take a moment to recognize, in my opinion, one of the most successful baby nurse members is getting out.

Job juggling. Job juggling her responsibilities here and the men she has her own life. She just graduated this past Saturday with her master's in business administration from Southern University. Oh, wow. That degree that degree came with a lot of late nights, sacrifice, and determination.

And it's a perfect example of the standard we set not to destroy our kids or for ourselves. And I ended this this line. We're not here to benefit. We're here to protect and push forward a movement and evolve legacy.

So today, obviously, like the chair said, we're gonna have the presentation followed by that wonderful opening by David Lopes, then the proposed budget, updates on soccer and spring, and then public comment. So

Yes.

There's teamwork. There's love in here. It's fun. And it's giving back to our community. Yeah.

We really take pride in making sure that we're giving of the experience that we can that we didn't get when we were kids.

And just just to piggyback off of that, like, it looks like a lot, but it really comes so naturally to us now. You know what I mean? And like Anthony said, we've had the best team around, I came to say, and we really do. Like, it's so effortless. You know what I mean?

Like, the events that we put on, the programs that we incorporate each day, even from the kickball waves that just happened before you guys got you. Like, it's so effortless here. It's like like you said, it's more of a home than anything. You know what I mean? And it runs so soon.

Yeah.

Awesome. So we did give you guys a a little tour, we do utilize about every tablet here. Our computer really is used every single day for homework and enrichment programs that Danielle herself has implemented here, and we're just working with them. I mean, a lot of our kids are in the system. So the reading notes are all math.

Danielle was thinking it into her own hands, and, well, we both, purchase with our phonics to get some kids, you know, that kind of. And a lot of. Yes. You know? And not just from me and from every record.

There's so many kids that have. It's like, I can't even begin to start to to to listen kids, but there's, like, a lot of kids that have come in and learn the game. I don't know if you mentioned it, but Daniel used

to play

basketball back in the days. Daniel's is too time

for us.

That's better. But, yeah, just getting back to that but also teaching yeah. Just teaching. That's hilarious. Like I said, we we gave the talk.

We use it for storage now. Once upon a time, it acted as a weight room and also studio to music. Yes. We've run all of these programs. We've, we've run out of here.

Summer reading. A lot of schools don't require summer reading, but we make it mandatory here that kids, you know, once they get in, they find a book. We either do, like, group books, but we absolutely positively make sure they get a book and, and get some summer reading done. And we also incorporate it

in the summertime during camp time. We have everybody read. It did we try to do it every day when it does get hot in here. Again, this is Las Vegas space. So if it's to the point where it's unhealthy, then we don't.

But if it's to the point where, you know, it's comfortable, then we do try to incorporate reading every day.

Mhmm. Swimming lessons. So we do our own in house swim lessons here, but I can't. We also offer swimming lessons to the public in surrounding rec centers who do not have recreation center jobs. Gonna be welcoming them in.

I have to let it.

Oh, before we go there, there's two two three adults when we're not

Oh, okay. Cool. Yes. On the last, well, in the past, way way back in the past, we used to bring adults in after pool hours. So we'll be able to come in the pool from, like, 5PM to 8PM.

Of course, things change with different administration. But just last year, we were able to start a Zoom again. I believe that was somewhere is it seven? No. No.

It's it's like it was it was Tuesday.

It was like like, Wednesday.

Yeah. We said that. So it was Tuesday, Thursday. I believe the hours were many hours. They were, like, so literally.

Think nine to seven. Yeah. So what else you make? I would say there were some days we had people, but then there were some days at work. I think it would you know, with planning, it would make more sense to, like, push it later in the day.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, after the pool closes because I feel like that's a lot of people work. We always have a ton of people coming from the hospital like that's a little bit for adults. You know what I mean?

So Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. I think that would be

Yeah. Mhmm. That is good. Yeah. Yeah.