Grand Prairie awarded grant for youth summer camp
Courtesy City of Grand Prairie
Rock climbing, canoeing, archery, biking and camping will be offered in a new City of Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation summer camp program this year. Grand Prairie is one of two Dallas-Fort Worth area cities to receive the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Community Outdoor Outreach Program (Co-Op) grant designed to help children from urban areas experience the outdoors.
Grand Prairie will offer the camps to youth ages 9-17. The four one-week camps will take place at Loyd Park on Joe Pool Lake and the $24,000 Co-Op grant will be used to purchase tents, lanterns, camping stoves, cooler, sleeping bags, canoes, mountain bikes, helmets, life jackets and other supplies. The City of Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation Department will pay for staff to administer the program.
Curriculum for the outdoor adventure camps was developed by Marshawn Wilks, Dalworth Recreation Program Center Supervisor and Tracy Hollis, Natural Science Education Facilitator for the Grand Prairie Independent School District. Wilks realized the benefits that an outdoor program could bring to children at Dalworth Recreation Center and applied for the grant.
“I attended an outdoor camp much like this when I was a kid,” Wilks said. “It was great to get outside, learn new sports and activities I had never done before and get away from familiar surroundings. I wanted to offer the same experience for kids in Grand Prairie. Fernando Reyes, Urban Outreach Coordinator for TPWD gave me a lot of support and introduced me to people who helped make it happen.”
For more information call Marshawn Wilks at 972-264-7670 or email mwilks@gptx.org.
