Clark County District D and St. Louis Rams Running Back Steven Jackson, a native of Las Vegas, will host the 12th annual Back to School Fair Tuesday, Aug. 14 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Walnut Recreation Center at 3075 N. Walnut Road.
Vendors will be on hand to provide information and free school supplies (while they last), including more than 2,000 backpacks.
The event also celebrates the Walnut Recreation Center’s 10-year anniversary. The facility has played a significant role over the last decade in providing recreational opportunities to the lower northeast area of the Las Vegas Valley. It started in 1998 as a three-wide trailer named the Walnut-Cecile Community Center, offering free outreach recreation to more than 1,000 children from surrounding neighborhoods and serving about 100 kids at the trailer site daily.
Leveraging that success, the County in 2002 invested more than $10 million to build a 41,000-square-foot, full-service recreation center. Today, the center offers a variety of free and paid programs and services. In the past 10 years, Walnut has grown to accommodate the 89115 community, a good portion of North Las Vegas, and Nellis Air Force Base. Amenities include a multi-generational recreation center, fitness room, an adjacent outdoor residential park and a neighborhood water park.
The Walnut Recreation Center has become a very popular facility with patrons participating in a wide array of classes, special events and drop-in activities. Over the past year, more than 5,700 patrons enrolled in classes and nearly 11,000 participants attended special events. The fitness room received nearly 7,000 visits and almost 40,000 attended events using Walnut's rental facilities. Another 20,000 utilized Walnut for drop-in activities and facility use. Walnut Recreation Center is an activity hub of the neighborhood and community.
Walnut Park construction will begin soon adding 4.5 acres of park space. Amenities include walking trails, a children's playground, adult exercise stations, numerous shade structures, an 1,100-square-foot, single-story pre-fabricated restroom and storage space. Play areas will include natural turf, multi-use fields with sport/security lighting. The project should be ready for use by next summer. The Walnut center is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is closed on Sunday. Reservable rooms are available to rent for special occasions seven days a week.
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Clark County is a dynamic and innovative organization dedicated to providing top-quality service with integrity, respect and accountability. With jurisdiction over the world-famous Las Vegas Strip and covering an area the size of New Jersey, Clark is the nation’s 14th-largest county and provides extensive regional services to more than 2 million citizens and 42 million visitors a year. Included are the nation’s 8th-busiest airport, air quality compliance, social services and the state’s largest public hospital, University Medical Center. The County also provides municipal services that are traditionally provided by cities to almost 900,000 residents in the unincorporated area. Those include fire protection, roads and other public works, parks and recreation, and planning and development.