Recreation and Park District Receives $5,000 Award

It wasn't the $10,000 grand prize, but Fair Oaks Recreation and Park District Administrator Maureen Zamarripa isn't about to complain about a $5,000 grant awarded to the district, thanks to the Sprite Sparks Parks program.

"I'm just ecstatic," Zamarripa said.

The news comes after the announcement was made Tuesday afternoon that two Sacramento-area parks, Fair Oaks Park and McKinley Park, were among the top three grant recipients in the Raley's Family of Fine Stores and Sprite partnership to provide $20,000 to refurbish worn-out neighborhood basketball courts through the Sprite Sparks Park Project.

According to a press release, the project garnered more than 2,600 online votes cast by Northern California and Nevada residents.

An excited Zamarripa explained the $5,000 will go toward improving the basketball courts at Fair Oaks Park, which includes re-paving the courts and installing new basketball hoops.

"We're getting bids now to see how far the money will go and then that will tell us which surface we can put on and what exactly we can do for the basketball hoops," Zamarripa. "We'll be concentrating on the surfaces people play on see how far we can go from there."

District recreation supervisor Katy Albers hopes to have the project out to bid and under development by the end of July with the hopes of having it complete by the beginning of the fall season. Albers explained the District received the good news May 9 and has wasted little time moving forward with its plans to improve the park.

With the help of the National Recreation Parks Association, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing park recreation and conservation efforts, .

“Our goal is to improve communities in inspired ways, and by partnering with Raley’s and local residents they led us to basketball courts where we can make the biggest impact,” said executive vice president of Sacramento Coca-Cola Bottling Company Bob Brown in a released statement. “By generating support for these critically important play spaces among Sacramento residents, we’re working as a team to ensure our local youth have safe, fun places where they can get together in a positive, active way.”

According to a release, the Fair Oaks community responded to the challenge of gaining votes with the support of local businesses, schools and community groups through the use of social media, posters, flyers and word of mouth.

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