July is National Park and Recreation Month! The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) wants you and your community to celebrate parks and recreation! NRPA is encouraging the public to show how much fun parks and recreation are, while learning about the many benefits they bring to the community. There are several national initiatives planned to help accomplish that. Visit NRPA’s website below and tell them what you love about parks and recreation.

http://www.nrpa.org/july/?utm_source=Homepage&utm_medium=Coverflow&utm_content=ParkRecMo560x204&utm_campaign=Homepage_Coverflow_2013

In support of NRPA’s effort, AZ Cities @ Work is featuring Arizona’s cities and towns that help their communities stay active this summer. Read these articles to see why parks and recreation are so vital for our lives!

Find out how Tucson was recognized with rankings in two national top ten lists for bicycle friendliness! Great job Tucson!

http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/announcement/tucson-ranks-top-10

Mesa Moving Forward: Mayor Scott Smith highlights the unique partnership between the City of Mesa and Mesa Public Schools

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3D1YgrM2zk&feature=youtu.be

Vote for your park! The search for America’s Favorite Park is on, and your votes could make the difference.

https://parks.livepositively.com/parks/index.html#findpark?searchterm=arizona

Flagstaff’s Recreation Department brings you Touch -A- Truck

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=644636342232902&l=b4f21175b2

By Steve Johnson, Public Information Officer, Bullhead City

The biggest festival in Bullhead City for the past seven years is the River Regatta in August, a nine-mile float down the Colorado River. It began in 2007 when about 900 people on inner tubes and rafts set off from Community Park and floated down to Rotary Park. In 2012, 27,000 people joined the Bullhead City Regatta!

The event requires a lot of support from the city, community and businesses. Local department stores, sporting goods stores, even hardware stores– that might not otherwise carry watercraft — offer tubes, rafts and life-jackets for this annual festival on the water.

Competition: teams, inspired by a different theme each year, create floats as wild as their imagination and as big as a bundle of inner tubes or Styrofoam will take them, compete for cash prizes and trophies. Over the years, the Colorado River has carried grass huts, birthday cakes, huge floating alligators, even pirate ships along its cool, rippling currents under the August desert sun.

Riverside residents are also encouraged to compete by decorating their homes and cheering on the floaters, many of whom are visitors from around the country.

Bullhead City River Regatta participants fill hotels, restaurants and stores, infusing hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economy during the weekend event.

Regatta revelers hold parties and cheer on floaters

Thousands prepare to launch from Community Park

Mayor Georgia Lord
City of Goodyear

A frenzy of fans and tourists have returned to the Grand Canyon State for a fun-filled time of year that arrives with the anticipation of the holiday season:

Another spring training season has begun as thousands of fans are converging in Arizona to see their favorite Major League Baseball Team.

A tradition that began with the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants more than 65 years ago, half of baseball’s teams – 15 – today call Arizona their spring training home.

Spring training has boomed into one of the state’s largest tourism draws, generating $422 million a year in annual revenue just during the baseball season alone, according to the results of an economic impact study conducted by Elliot D. Pollack and Company and released by the Cactus League and the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority in December. Overall, spring training facilities around the Grand Canyon state generate $632 million a year, that’s including the off-season events held at the facilities.

Goodyear Ballpark – home to the Cincinnati Reds, baseball’s oldest professional team, and the Cleveland Indians – the first team in the Cactus League, was voted the best place to see a spring training game by readers of the Phoenix New Times two of the last three years.

So, while baseball fever is catching on, catch a game in the Cactus League and see all there is to see in the Grand Canyon State.

Text from Bloomberg website:

• Best Place to Raise Kids in Arizona: Oro Valley
• Population: 40,422
• GreatSchools city score: 9
• Median family income: $83,409
• Housing costs as a percentage of income: 19.1%
• County unemployment rate: 7.1%
• Nearby city: Tucson

This Arizona burg isn’t just for snowbirds escaping the cold North—it’s become a major base for biotech firms, fueled by research at nearby Tucson’s University of Arizona and the town’s own Innovation Park.

http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/2012-12-17/the-best-places-to-raise-kids-2013#slide4

Congrats, Oro Valley!