Durham Parks and Recreation: Play More!

By: Mal Atkinson, Resource Coordinator While the days leading up to a wedding may involve running errands, completing last minute tasks and hosting out of town guest and family...one Durham couple spent their time giving back to Rockwood Park! They aren’t an ordinary couple that do ordinary mundane things. They are two people that have desire to make their community and those around them better.  On a cool Saturday morning in April, Maggie and David gathered over 50 of their closest friends and family members for a pre-wedding morning workday at Rockwood Park, the neighborhood park close to their home and their favorite place to take a morning walk. Friends, moms, dads, stepparents, brothers and sisters all joined in to help plant a native perennial garden near the Rockwood Park picnic shelter. Maggie and David wanted to make their favorite park more beautiful while honoring their commitment to tending their home. They purchased and donated over 500 flowers and plants, which w...

Lyon Park is getting ready to receive some highly-anticipated, community-guided improvements! Located at 1200 W Lakewood Avenue, Lyon Park is a multi-use community park in West Central Durham situated between West End, Morehead Hill, Forest Hills, and Lakewood Park neighborhoods. The current park features include a picnic shelter, playground, swings, basketball court, athletic field and restrooms. Back in 2017, Durham Parks and Recreation (DPR) received concerns from nearby residents around the park regarding the out-of-service light pole, the need for more lighting, issues with the restrooms, feeling unsafe, the need for more maintenance, and the on-going issue of litter being left around the park. These improvement requests aligned with DPR’s interest in finding ways to support Durham’s growing population, supporting types of recreation gaining popularity, and attracting users to re-engage with Lyon Park. In 2018, DPR took action and began performing an assessment of the park to addr...

The national award winning Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival will celebrate its 52nd Anniversary on May 21, 2022! Join us at Rock Quarry Park, located at 701 Stadium Drive, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. for this family oriented event as we celebrate African and African American history, culture, arts, and traditions. In partnership with Durham Parks and Recreation, the 52nd Annual Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival is presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. Get ready for a day filled with FREE live music, family fun zone, arts and crafts, community resources, ethnic food, local talent and more! We're excited to announce our Main Stage Headliners, Sunshine Anderson and Mario, will be wrapping up the event with performances beginning a 6 p.m. For a detailed list of activities and the full main stage schedule, visit our website .  This is an event you sure won't want to miss! Now let's get you prepared with all the important details to make sure you are ready for the day... What...

From replacing playgrounds to developing new parks to repairing trails, Durham Parks and Recreation (DPR) is continually making strides to enhance recreation and play through various capital improvement and construction projects around the City of Durham! One of the newest long-term undertakings is the Splash and Play Project, a culmination of the City of Durham’s effort to develop park projects, especially related to outdoor aquatics, for East End Park, Long Meadow Park, and the former Wheels Fun Park site. The primary intent of the Splash & Play Project is to evaluate and assess these three pre-identified park sites with the focus of identifying opportunities to implement recommendations included in the City’s 2013 Parks and Recreation Master Plan and the 2017 Aquatics Facilities Master Plan. The project prioritizes consideration of the former Wheels Fun Park for the development of a large outdoor aquatics facility and other programming possibilities, as well as consider solution...

Who's ready for some summer fun!? We sure are and all we need is YOU to join us! We've officially released the June - August 2022 Play More Guide ! Start exploring the 55 pages of fun, interactive and educational programs and activities for all ages, intensity levels and interests. Whether you step up your game at Pickleball Skills and Drills or enjoy some fishing at Family Lake Day, there is something for everyone! Registration is officially open in  ActiveNet  for these summer programs. Spots fill up fast - so make sure to register for a program before it is too late! How do I register for a program? We have an online registration portal, called  Active Net , that allows participants to register for most programs in the comfort of their own home. You can search for your favorite programs by keyword, age, day, time, location and more! Best of all, there are no registration fees...so whether you sign up in person at your local recreation center or online, the fees (if any...

By: Cynthia Booth, Senior Public Affairs Analyst Out with the old, and in with the new! The playground at Burton Park, located at 1501 Sima Ave, is only a few weeks away from installation of a new structure, designed and chosen by the Durham community! Durham Parks and Recreation (DPR), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) and KABOOM! are working together to increase access to play with the creation of a new playspace at Burton Park. The new playground will provide hundreds of kids access to a safe, high-quality place to play. In February, kids from the Durham community participated in Design Day, an event where they presented drawings of their dream neighborhood playground. Their creative ideas served as inspiration for the actual Burton Park playspace design, which includes a variety of swings, multiple slides, and inclusive play panel elements. Check out pictures on the DPR Facebook page from Design Day! The project partners, along with 250 local vo...

By: Caitlin Sasse, Recreation Coordinator for Outdoor Recreation and City Lakes Ever been to a Bioblitz!? A bioblitz is a community science initiative to help catalog the biodiversity of a local area in a short period of time. Now's your chance to get out and explore nature at the Durham Bioblitz beginning Friday, April 29 through Sunday, May 8! This is a great way to connect with your environment while generating useful data for science and conservation while having fun! This week of nature exploration is brought to you by an amazing partnership of organizations led by Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association and including the Eno River Association, Keep Durham Beautiful, NC Museum of Life and Science, Merrick-Moore Community Development Corporation and many more! In partnership with Eno River Association, Durham Parks and Recreation is hosting Bioblitz on the Eno on Friday, May 6 at the Environmental Education Pavilion at West Point on the Eno starting at 5 p.m. Join us for a hike (...

Do you know what day April 22 is!? It's National Volunteer Appreciation Day! We're taking this day to say T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U to the hundreds of residents and community members that have volunteered their time to serve with Durham Parks and Recreation over the years! So what impact do volunteers really have on our organization!? Let's take a look back our volunteer statistics from since 2020! Being two years that had limited program operation, Durham's residents contributed 1,649 hours of volunteering in by completing park and trail clean-up projects in Durham's parks and on over 31 miles of trails and greenways. This service is valued at a total of $42,841! And let's not forget the 9,534 hours of assistance volunteering at a variety of DPR programs and events! From athletic coaches to special event ambassadors, we were supported by 1,108 volunteers. That's a total value of $247,598! You see, we rely on our volunteers to help make programs and projects possible!...