Great Bend Recreation Commission Monthly Board Meeting
Date: Aug. 24, 2026
Old Business Items:
Reports
ENRICHMENT REPORTS- Garet Fitzpatrick, Enrichment /Activity Center Director
We started out with 20 tagged fish at both Vet’s Lake and Stone Lake for our new Fish Tagging program that will run until all the fish are caught. We still have 12 tagged fish in Stone and Vets Lake.
Participants that catch a tagged fish need to take a photo of the fish and themselves and e-mail it to the following e-mail address (gfitzpatrick@gbrec.net) which is on the tag along with the tag number printed on the tag. Participants will receive an e-mail back within a couple of days informing them how to collect their prize. After taking the photo and getting the tag number you may cut the tag off and release the fish or keep it if you like. Each tag number will be assigned a prize for that particular tag. In order to participate in this event all participants must follow all the regulations and Kansas licensing requirements for fishing in the state of Kansas set by the Kansas Wildlife & Parks Department. Prizes will vary from gift cards, fishing tackle, outdoor gear, and more. These donations will be provided by the Great Bend Rec.
Let’s see how good you are solving a photo puzzle. Keep an eye out on the Great Bend Rec Facebook page randomly June through September for the Photo Detective post. This post will include a photo of something taken in or around the Great Bend area. We will share a partial photo of something and need you to figure out what the photo is and its location. Then post your answer in the comment section. The first one to answer the question will receive a $20 gift card. We had 14 guesses for the July photo of the new Eisenhower Basketball Court. The winner was Victoria Clawson.
The Rec would love to see your photos of you participating in Rec summer activities. On July 24, the Rec posted a Show Us Your Rec Photos post on our Facebook page. All participants needed to do was simply share a photo in the comment section. All photos needed to be submitted in the comment section by Noon on July 28, 2026. We randomly picked 3 entries that received a $20 gift card. We received 52 entries. Winners were Ellie Anspaugh, Macey Fagen, and Stacy Lynn.
We had a great summer of activities, and I would like to thank my staff for an outstanding job:
Alyssa Herter, Alyssa Frye, Brynna Boltman, Callie Umphres, DeJuan Thompson, Dixie Divis, Gavynn Maddox, Holly Johnson, Judy Duryee, Karen Clark, Karys Leu, Kelly Feist, Kara Feist, Laurie McCurry, Linda Pearson, Margaret Bartholomew, Miraya Starnes, Marile Ensley, Mylee Maddox, Sienna Cauley, Sarah Burkhead, Tammy Bell, Tracie Kalivoda, Tia Stanton, and Zach Goodenough. Also, a big thank you goes out to Jay for helping me during the summer and for taking over the Kids Day Out events.
July was also a time to plan another exciting program lineup for Fall. Classes will start up the first of October and run through December.
ENRICHMENT REPORTS: Enrichment, Aquatic, Marketing Director-Megan Hammeke:
July Adaptive:
7/7-7/28 – SN Bowling. Bowling met 4 times and had 122 participants.
7/8 – Sunshine Door Hanger – Craft Class. 15 enrolled in this class.
7/16 – Easy Cooking – Ice Cream. We had 16 enrolled in our monthly cooking class.
7/18 – Luau. We had 77 participants in our yearly Luau event.
7/22 – Tye Dye Fun – Craft Class. 22 enrolled in this class.
July 50 Plus Activities:
7/23 – Clothes Pin Sunflower – Craft Class. 4 enrolled in this class.
August Adaptive & 50 Plus Activities:
8/4-8/25 – SN Bowling
SN bowling is our only Enrichment program for the month of August for Adaptive & 50 Plus activities. We will use the months of August and September to plan for the fall and close the pool down for the season.
July Activities:
7/1-7/31 – Fit for Life exercise Class met 12 times and had 374 participants.
7/1-7/31 – Midday Stretch met 18 times and had 277 participants.
7/2-7/31 – Yoga met 9 times and had 63 participants.
7/2-7/31 – Cardio Blast met 8 times and had 22 participants.
7/1-7/31 – Gentle Yoga met 9 times and had 211 participants in the 3pm class and met 7 times and had 41 participants in the 6:30 pm class.
7/1-7/31 – Chair Yoga met 9 times and had 187 participants.
7/1-7/31 – AM HIIT met 8 times and had 74 participants.
7/1—7/31 – Sunrise Yoga met 9 times and had 57 participants.
7/1-7/31– Tai Chi Intermediate met 7 times and had 46 participants.
7/1-7/31 – Tai Chi Beginners met 4 times and had 45 participants.
7/1-7/31 – Indoor Cycling met 9 times and had 58 participants in the AM class and met 9 times and had 43 participants in the PM class.
7/1-7/31 – Spin Strength & Stretch met 8 times and had 49 participants in the class.
7/1-8/6– Water Aerobics met 19 times and had 462 participants in the PM class and met 11 times and had 190 participants in the T/TH class.
August Activities:
The summer session of Fitness classes wrapped up July 31st. We will take the rest of the month off for our annual maintenance time at the Activity Center. Next session will begin the week of August 31st.
SPORTS REPORT-Shane Sandberg- Sports Director:
GBRC Staff hosted the 2026 Oozefest Mud Volleyball Tournament in coordination with Party in the Park on Saturday August 8th. There were 24 teams registered this year. 14 adult teams and 10 youth teams. Competition lasted from 9am until 1:30pm. The Mud Dawgs, a group of boys from Great Bend and Ellinwood High Schools, won the youth bracket. Los Lobos, a team from Hutchinson that finished 2nd last year, pulled off the victory in the adult bracket.
Adult Coed Softball will play their playoff games on Friday, Aug. 28. The excitement of using the Great Bend Sports Complex for games brought out 9 teams again this season. We are finishing about a week late after having to postpone some games due to inclement weather over the last few weeks.
Outdoor Soccer and Flag Football rosters are complete, coaches’ meetings are done, and practices have started. Our soccer staff meeting will be Thursday, August 27th and practice games will be played on Saturday August 29th and then we will take a week off for Labor Day Weekend. Flag football staff will meet the first week of September and we will begin playing games on Tuesday September 8th. To accommodate later start times due to the GBHS needing the field for practice, we will only play 2 games a night and utilize Vets North and Vets South outfields for some games on Mondays and Thursdays. We will use Memorial Stadium for the Monday games when GBHS Junior Varsity is not playing and for all Tuesday games. Championship games will be played at Memorial Stadium as well.
Instructional Outdoor Soccer for the 4- and 5-year-olds and Lil’ Setters volleyball will both start on Tuesday September 1st and run for 4 straight weeks. We have experienced staff returning for each and that will allow Aaron and I to put more of our focus on our league games that happen on the weekday evenings.
It worked out well putting a 5th / 6th grade volleyball team into the travel rec league with Hoisington, Ellinwood, Larned, etc. so we will do that again this year. Cindy Beck will be coaching them again this year.
Attendance Report- Joe Henry, Business Director:
In the month of July, there were 2,193 people enrolled in programs sponsored by the Recreation Commission. Total participation for the month was 14,117 and of that total, 4,758 were spectators. For the month, a total of 1,744 hours of supervised activities were offered.
Last year there were 2,037 people enrolled in programs with participation of 12,444 and included 4,564 spectators.