While Canada's emissions have slightly decreased, London is struggling to meet targets (Credit: Ontario Bike Trails)
The city has been seeing warmer than usual temperatures over the past few weeks, meaning many of the city’s winter activities have begun to wrap up.
“Our indoor rinks are closing March 31 and our outdoor rinks closed this past weekend,” says City of London Manager of Recreation Programming and Leadership, Shanna Reid.
“If you take a look at what last weekend was like, we had beautiful days and we were still skating, so lots of people were partaking in those activities.”
Reid says that the city has begun planning and pushing out their activities and programs to mark the beginning of spring.
“Currently, we’ll be registering for the next number of weeks, so get your requests in as we have a number of really cool, new items that are on our spring program.”
She says that family activities, options for individuals, and overall attention to the different aspects of the city will be top of mind heading into the Spring.
“We have our introduction to cycling for our adults and we have a trial date coming up on May 1st. It’s during the day, so it’s 10 to noon for anybody wanting to try out our cycling program,” says Reid.
“We’re getting people out into the community and into our variety of different pathways, so they’ll be going into different sections of our lovely city.”
Red says that on top of cycling, hiking is a great way for Londoners to discover different parts of the city.
“It runs Tuesday evenings, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday mornings. Again, utilizing different trails throughout the city during the spring months.”
One particular favourite that is well known to many across the city is golf, with the prime season just around the corner.
“We also have our golf season coming up as well, you don’t want to forget about golf,” says Reid.
“We’re not really sure when that will open but we’re pretty sure it will be early April this year maybe even pushing it back a bit based on the weather.”
On top of the activities and programs, Reid goes on to say that the city is still in search of filling some positions which are vital to the success of the spring recreations.
“We have our opportunities for staff recruitment, we are still looking for staff. There’s a variety of different locations and/or options for them, one of which is our child and youth programs. That would be for our spring programs coming up and it’s programs such as our soccer programs, basketball, multi-sports, and more, that’s maybe an option for somebody that’s looking for a part-time job.”
She says that their aquatics department is also on the hunt for lifeguards, but mentions that they require certifications in order to be considered.
As for Reid, she says she is personally excited for the Spring, eager to get a jump into some of the programs herself.
“Well, I’m a big hiker and I’m pretty new to the city, so both the introduction to cycling and the hiking programs I’m very interested in. Just to get myself out into the outdoors and also to get around the city to find all those different trails that we have out there.”
She goes on to say that there are plenty of different options available for Londoners of all types, with pickleball, aquatics, and more all also being put on display this year.
“There’s a number of places that you can drop by to figure out how to register for these programs. Online, of course, is really easy and you can do it from your home. That’s at london.ca/playyourway and you can register for a variety of programs. That would be our Aquatics, anything in our community centers, and of course the highlighted programs that I just mentioned.”
Reid says that you can also call in, mentioning that their customer service department is available to take your calls about inquiries, questions, and registrations at (519) 661-5575.”
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