[Mark Padgett]

Our local kids rec league will be celebrating it's 30th anniversary this week. We were started in 1981 with a grant from the local Rotary club, and they subsidized the league for a few years. The motivation to start the organization was to reduce the cost to parents compared to what they had been paying for their kids to play in the other local rec league - at the YMCA. Apparently, it worked, since we're still here 30 years later. Our first year, we had about 200 kids in the program. Last season, we had just over 1000. We're financially sound and have great community support,plus all our Board members are volunteers. I'm starting my 19th year on the Board and I hope to be around for another 19 years.