KC Selected for National Outdoor Youth Advocacy Program
Oak Park, a pocket park and small bowl of green at about 44th Street and Prospect Avenue, has hosted many playing children since its creation in 1945, among them a younger Sly James.
As a child, the mayor-to-be was compelled to an appreciation of the great outdoors by force, he reflected before a crowd gathered there early last Thursday.
“When I was growing up, you used to have mandatory outside time because your parents would throw you out the house,” he told the chuckling crowd at Oak Park. “Some of my best and fondest memories were outdoors,” he said.
The mayor reprised his childhood memories to announce Kansas City had been selected for a federal outdoor education and recreation program. He joined members of the U.S. Department of the Interior in a conference May 19 to kick start Kansas City’s being a focus city for the “Let’s Move! Outside” program.
Kansas City is one of 50 “Priority Cities” along with Anchorage, Ala., and Knoxville, Tenn., that the program will work with to strengthen outdoor recreation and education opportunities in public green spaces.
In vetting partnering cities, U.S. Department of the Interior senior staffer David Jayo said the program’s organizers sought strong local leadership to drive the national initiative. He called the mayor an “advocate for parks, trailblazer and a true public servant” in remarks delivered with the announcement.
The outdoor engagement program is an extension of First Lady Michelle Obama’s health and nutrition advocacy initiative “Let’s Move!” It’s a joint project between the U.S. Department of Interior, the federal government’s principal land and resource management department, and White House.
Jayo said the partnership is founding on a mutual interest in children’s’ health and environmental protection.
American Express has offered a $5 million donation to help jumpstart the program.
As part of the program, Kansas City will host a “Let’s Move! Outside” summit later this year.
James was emphatic about the program’s youth-centered focus.
“We know it very basically and we’ve said it time and time and time again: as our kids grow, so grows our city. Our kids are 100 percent of our future,” James said.
