Park and Play Mobile visits Solway Park
By Ken Lay
Knox County Parks and Recreation’s Park and Play Mobile rolled into Northwest Knox County Thursday morning as it made a stop at Solway Park, located at 3205 Solway Drive.
The event is the third hosted by Knox County with previous stops in Corryton Park and French Memorial Park in South Knoxville.
Last week’s event was sparsely attended, at least early, but it provided the county’s youth an opportunity to participate in several recreation and sporting activities including cornhole, kickball, arts and crafts and bubbles.
The two previous park and ride events in Corryton and South Knox County drew 35-40 participants.
“We usually have a parking lot full of kids,” said Whitney Fitzsimons, Knox County Recreation Director. “We want kids to get out and come and play in their neighborhoods, in their neighborhood parks.
“We’re going to parks that we haven’t programmed.”
The Park and Play program has a partnership with Knoxville Head Start, which handles the arts and crafts portion of the program, which features Play-Doh for the younger participants.
The program, which also has a partnership with the Knox County Library system, has activities for children of all ages and the program aims to get children to play.
“We just want the kids to come out to the park and play for a couple of hours,” Fitzsimons said.
Bringing mobile play to neighborhood parks is the first step and Fitzsimons noted that the program is looking to expand to apartment complexes in Knox County and bring play to those who may not be able to visit a county park.
The Park and Play mobile will be at Mascot Park in East Knox County on Thursday, July 20th before making a stop at Powell Levi Park on July 27th, then closing out the summer season on the west side of town at Walker Springs Park on August 3rd.
