Last year our Letters to Santa service received a record-breaking 282 letters to Santa! Local children deposited letters in a special mailbox under the Nevers Park gazebo at the corner of Nevers & Sand Hill Roads. Let’s see if we can do better than that between December 3 and 19th this holiday season! Our Tree Management & Invasive Species Control initiative continued with more clearing of invasive materials hazardous, diseased and dead trees from the newly acquired Collins Hill (recently re-named to Porter’s Hill by the Town Council), along the Plum Gulley Brook on the high school campus, at the Priest Farm, sparing a handful of healthy unique trees and at Lawrence Road Park.
Our first-ever Father-Daughter Dance last February drew an unbelievable attendance of 200! Dads and their precious little girls danced their way into lifetime memories. Come on Dads, let’s break that attendance record in 2019! Our first-ever Moms and Son(s) Dodgeball Fun held last April was wildly successful with 45 moms and sons participating in the dodge ball “battle” that brought more laughter, high fives, fist bumps and sweat that just had to be seen to be believed and left them all wanting a repeat next year - ,and we will oblige!
Our 47th Annual Egg Hunt, proudly sponsored by Imperial Oil & Plumbing held last March 30 saw over two thousands kids collect a record 30,000 plastic eggs across six age groups in two hours! You’ve got to see this to believe it! Our talented parks crew installed our very first clay cricket pitch and painted boundary lines at the South Windsor Fairgrounds (formerly Barton Property) this Spring in partnership with the new local cricket team the “New England United Cricket Club”. They also prepared this site for the “Paws in the Park” event in May including aerating, mowing, laying out parking and vendor assignments and line painting. They also transformed Rye St. Park and Nevers Park into multiple field sports specific sites for three youth lacrosse tournament, one youth soccer tournament and one youth football jamboree. Crew members also began the process of removing high maintenance material at the Buckland islands and prepared turf for application of a hearty variety of wild flower seed mix. The “new” islands will be colorful and attractive with far less maintenance required and safer for the crew.
Satisfied cricket players with their brand new field!!
Substantial clearing of the property around the Priest farm house is complete.
By the time you read this article, the HazMat abatement and demolition of the old farm house at the former Jones Property and now town-owned open space will finally be complete. The Police and Fire Departments utilized the structure for some training exercises throughout the spring & summer beforehand. There is so much more to share, but I have run out of space, so I guess that’s it for this issue. We hope you will find something of interest within these 48 colorful pages, and remember to like us on Facebook, and to feel great – recreate with your South Windsor Parks & Recreation Department!
4th “R” participated in “The Linus Project,” which is an organization that collects blankets and donates them to local hospitals and shelters. 7