Vineland Fourth Fridays Integrate Park Hop Fun

June 21, 2016 | Community News, Community News and Media, Vineland

Park Hop, which offered Vineland residents opportunities to engage in planned physical activity at various Vineland city parks, was a welcome event last summer and this spring. But finding ways to sustain Park Hop activities through community and volunteer efforts has been less successful…until now.

Starting in May, Park Hop-type activities became part of Vineland Fourth Fridays. “Instead of organizing and coordinating separate events, we are combining Park Hop with Fourth Fridays and providing fun physical activities for kids,” said David Calderetti, Project Manager of New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids-Vineland (NJPHK-V).

One activity that helps kids move more is giant Tic-Tac-Toe, where two teams of participants run and drop bean bags on open squares to make the X and win the game. The activity combines both physical activity and mental stimulation.

Calderetti said that Live Healthy Vineland also is looking for more opportunities to piggyback on existing events and engage children and adults in physical fun and challenge. “We want to build on the success of Park Hop, but we have limited staff time and organizing bandwidth, so we are looking at ongoing community events to see where integration is feasible.”

In the meantime, hop over to the Vineland Mini Park every Fourth Friday this summer and fall for a game of Tic-Tac-Toe and other fun activities.

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