2011-02-02 P & R Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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� TO: Parks & Recreation Committee FROM: Kim Stephan DATE: January 25, 2011 SUBJECT: Parks & Recreation Hosting an Olympic Day The following is email input from Chairperson Branch: Olympic Day 2011: Ms. Stephan has sent out information on the National Olympic Day. I hope that the committee will give this event serious consideration. There are 160 of these events nationwide, but only 3 in Minnesota. The first question is how to fund the event. This is where I would use the majority of the $1 S00 now slated to the YMCA Park Programs. I think that we could do this for approximately $1000 and divert the other $S00 to our Movies in the Parks Program. I see three possible courses of action: 1. We could jump in fully committed and make this happen. By US Olympic rules it needs to be the week ' of June 23. 2. We could can the idea as being too big for us, ( ot necessarily a bad option). � 3. We could commit to holding an Olympic Day 2012 and use the additional year for planning. , Here is a summary of what we could do. The two big challenges are the agenda and the participants. If we have a good game plan there - we can work the rest. Playing on the idea of the Olympics, we could set up a series of teams that we would call nations. We would invite organized sports, neighboring towns and the YMCA to field a national team. So we could have the hockey nation, soccer nation, YMCA nation, Hugo nation, etc. For sports we could do a one or two day softball tournament, tennis tournament, skate board skills, and sprint distance track events. We could invite an Olympic speaker from the national training center in Blaine. The following is an edited cut from their website and the e-mail note I received from a national parks and recreation source. "Olympic Day, held annually on June 23, is celebrated by thousands of people in more than 160 countries. Commemorating the birth of the modern Olympic Games, Olympic Day is not only a celebration, but an international effort to promote fitness and well-being in addition to Olympic ideals of Fair Play, Perseverance, Respect and Sportsmanship. 2011 Olympic Day events in the United States are requested to take place during the June 17-26, 2011 timeframe. The main secret to the success of Olympic Day is the turnkey nature of the event and the flexibility of making it adapt to the scope of the local host's abilities and resources. To get a better idea of what a local Olympic Day event can entail, please go to www.teamusa.org/olvmpicda,y. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) will make best efforts to secure a local Olympian, Paralympian or hopeful from your area to attend your event. Local area athletes commit to these events free of charge in an effort to promote the Olympic Movement and inspire all Americans.