By Ernie Pages

Hello, my fellow Kernersville Magazine reader. It’s me again, your friendly neighborhood Parks and Recreation Director with more things to tell you. First, I have some good news and some bad news for you all. Bad news first. This is my last article. I know, right? It’s heartbreaking. The good news is that Heather will be back for the April issue and she will have tons to write about.

In the last article I covered the Recreation and Event Center, the shelter at Harmon Park, and things happening at the Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden. So, what has been going on since we last left off? Well like last month, I will stick to the basics. The Recreation and Events Center is about 55% complete. We have been blessed with some warm weather and sunny days allowing the team to begin grading the future parking lot. Hopefully in the coming weeks we will have gravel poured and the curb and gutter installed. In the last article I promised to shed light on the center’s potential impact, so let’s talk about it.

Many of you may not know, but since last August I have been on the recruiting trail. I have been meeting with representatives of different agencies from different sports ranging in levels of competition. I have proudly presented Kernersville as the unique destination that it is, along with its character, making it the place they want to be. I am proud to report that the tournament schedule for 2025 is currently 80% complete. We have a large cheerleading competition scheduled for early 2025 and several dates for travel basketball tournaments. As for the remaining dates, we are awaiting news from hosting bids we submitted to officials representing volleyball, wrestling, powerlifting, tumbling, and boxing events. The key thing to remember is that participants of these events will be coming to Kernersville from all over the southeastern states. The economic impact resulting from the tourism produced from the Recreation and Event Center will be a huge benefit to the Town, its residents, and businesses.

Many of you are probably tired of hearing about sports tourism, so let me tell you about a deeper, more important impact the Recreation and Event Center will provide. Did you know that this past Father Daughter Dance sold out and registered a 100-person waiting list in just thirty minutes? That sounds great to those who got to go. Those that did not lost a chance of creating a memory with their dads or their daughters. Having this larger space means we can increase our numbers and hopefully host everyone. To all of you that have served as program instructors or program participants, we will now be able to offer you individual classrooms, meeting rooms, and dance/fitness rooms that will be better suited to your chosen activity. Lastly, Kernersville will finally have a place big enough to seat over 600 people for banquets and functions. Are we excited? Oh yeah!

Speaking about excitement, have you heard anything about BMX in Kernersville? There has been a lot of news covering BMX in Kernersville but I want you to know what is happening. The Town has submitted a “Letter of Intent” to USA BMX expressing its interest in partnering together to build a BMX Supercross facility. What is a supercross facility? It’s a BMX course built to a national championship standard with the intent of hosting large national meets. What does this “Letter of Intent” mean? It’s just a letter to USA BMX from the Town indicating that we are interested in a facility. On the flip side, USA BMX needs to find out if Kernersville is a good location for a supercross facility. Having the “Letter of Intent”, USA BMX will study Kernersville and conduct a feasibility study. They will study the location, the proposed site, and the possible market. Once determined, they will design a preliminary course layout and estimate project costs. When the time comes, the Town can choose to proceed or not. That is all of it in a nutshell.

So now that you know about the Recreation and Event Center and have the inside info on the BMX thing, do you want to know about summer camp and the honeybee festival? Summer camp registration opens this March and is first come first serve. Just like the “Father Daughter Dance”, the summer camp program carries a weekly waiting list and it fills up fast. Don’t wait on this one. Do you or anyone you know want to be a vendor at the Honeybee Festival? Vendor registration begins in March. We practice being mindful on originality, quality, and limited competition, and it is best to not wait to register for this event either.