Hilton Head Rec Center lives up to legacy with new project

For 40 years, the Hilton Head Island Recreation Association has served the public recreation needs of residents of the Town of Hilton Head Island, as well as thousands of island visitors, first at the Island Youth Center, and for the last 30 years at the Island Recreation Center.

A nonprofit organization, the association produces, provides and coordinates public recreation programs for the Town of Hilton Head Island. Our mission is to build a healthy community and improve the quality of life for people of all ages. (If you are new to the area, the Recreation Association would be like your town’s Parks and Recreation Department. The Town of Hilton Head Island works under a limited service government model and the Recreation Association satisfies the recreation program gap in our community.)

The next exciting step for our community is a $13 million Rec Center expansion project funded by a bond from the Town of Hilton Head Island.

The Rec Center project will add a 22,000-square-foot building and renovate the current 14,000-square-foot, 30-year-old building, for a total of 36,000 square feet of public recreation space. This will be a one-of-a-kind facility for Hilton Head, with a full range of health and recreation programs that will be a critical element to ensuring Hilton Head remains a world-class place to live, work and play. The current Rec Center renovation will be completed in the fall of 2017 and the new building is expected to open in mid-2018.

The new expansion will add a second gym, a second floor with indoor walking track, fitness rooms, new pool locker rooms and bathrooms, community meeting room, and areas available for dance classes, art programs, and fitness and wellness programs.

Today, the Recreation Association has more than 240,000 participant visits annually, and that number will grow exponentially when the expanded facility opens next year.

The Senior Center has more than 600 members, with ever-increasing and changing programs.

Every year, more than 20,000 people attend one of our 11 festivals at Shelter Cove Community Park, and many families participate in special events such as the Pumpkin Patch and Turkey Trot.

The association has provided scholarships to thousands of families in need over the last 40 years. In fact, two out of three children participating receive scholarships from the association’s Carmines Family Recreation Scholarship Fund. Last year, we provided $261,322 in scholarship funds for children in summer camp, after-school programs, the Challenge Camp for special-needs children, swimming lessons and youth athletics.

Fundraising is not new to the association. Since 1981, the association has raised more than $30 million to support the community’s public recreation programs through our annual operating budget.

In 2016, the association’s annual budget was more than $2.2 million. While the Town of Hilton Head Island provided $683,052 (31 percent) and Beaufort County offered $140,000 (6 percent), the association was responsible for raising the remaining $1.7 million (64 percent).

In the coming days, the Hilton Head Island Recreation Association, with our partner, the People for Parks Committee, will embark on a major fundraising campaign to provide furniture, fixtures and equipment for the renovated and new Island Rec Center facilities.

We are asking the community to take a vested interest in public recreation and help us raise the needed funds to make this new fantastic Recreation Center an outstanding place, which all islanders can be proud of.

More information is available on the People for Parks website.

We invite the community to stop by on Wednesday, June 21, at 5 p.m. to see the progress of this exciting project on Wilborn Road on the public school campus. We look forward to continuing to provide high-quality recreation for our community for many years to come.

This story was originally published June 7, 2017 at 7:39 AM with the headline "Hilton Head Rec Center lives up to legacy with new project."