July named Parks and Recreation Month

July was proclaimed Parks and Recreation Month in Hays County by the Hays County Commissioners Court.

At the court’s meeting on Tuesday, July 19, commissioners agreed to establish this month in recognition of the county’s parks department, as well as its host of parks and recreational facilities across the area.

“The services that park and recreation professionals provide are vital to our communities,” said Katherine Sturdivant, the education and outreach coordinator for the Hays County Parks Department. “These parks are natural resources that support physical and mental health. As parks specialists, we do everything including general office duties, trail maintenance, public education and invasive species management.

Sturdivant is one of seven full-time employees working for the department, ranging in age from 25 to 61 years old.

The proclamation itself shared multiple personal, community and environmental benefits of parks in general.

These included: providing a place for all ages to connect with nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being, and alleviating illnesses such as depression, attention deficit disorders, and Alzheimer's; activities and active lifestyles by providing hiking trails, swimming, educational programming and spaces for play; increasing a community’s economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses and crime reduction; improving the environmental well-being of a community by improving water quality, protecting groundwater, preventing flooding, improving air quality, providing vegetative buffers to development and producing habitats for wildlife.

For more about the Hays County Commissioners Court, visit hayscountytx.com/commissioners-court.