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Date: 12/21/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Recreation Department provides recreational activities for ages as young as six months all the way up to 99-plus. As 2023 is approaching, the department has a wide variety of programs planned for the upcoming year.
Recreation Director Donna Prather said, “A lot of our programs are ideas driven from the community members themselves. Someone will say, ‘Hey have you ever thought of doing this?’ We’ve had some people say, ‘Why don’t you do volleyball?’ So, we created an in-town volleyball program, and it continues to be a huge hit.”
She continued, “With our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs people have asked “What do you have for kids that aren’t into sports like baseball or softball?” and that’s how our STEM program came to be. We’re really open to any and all suggestions from the community and we also look at national trends when it comes to planning new programming. The bottom line is we listen to our community and try to offer fun programs and hold events that they would like to see us offer.”
Right now, the department has started their basketball program which will run until the end of March 2023. Swimming lessons will begin around the first of February 2023 and the Marlins swim team will start again in March 2023. They will also offer winter cheerleading, a theater program called Kreative Kids, volleyball, baseball, boys and girls lacrosse, spring soccer and softball. Some of these programs have already opened for registration, and many others will have registrations go live after the new year. The department is currently updating their pricing and registration process for Pine Knoll Day Camp for ages 3 to 12 and XTREME Teen Adventure Camp for youth that have completed grades 5-10.
Prather told Reminder Publishing the department’s goal is to provide quality programs for their community and making sure they’re encompassing everyone. They don’t want to be solely sports-oriented; their department wants to continue offering community events, family events and multi-generational type events for all to enjoy. They strive to see everyone engaged in some type of leisure activity.
“Recreation-based activities were dormant for so long due to COVID[-19] that we’re working towards rebuilding quality programming in an effort to make up for the time lost,” Prather concluded. “We would like to give a huge shout out to our volunteers. Without our volunteers we wouldn’t be able to offer the variety of activities we have.”
All programming and community events can be found on their website at eastlongmeadowrec.com. The Recreation Department is located at 328 North Main St. Their office hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Currently, they’re offering programming seven days a week, primarily after school and on weekends.