My Vegan Space

Forbes.com

Mary Morrison, who has taught a personal finance class to Stanford University seniors for 13 years, has seen it all, like the young woman who thought paid vacation meant all her travel and leisure activities would be paid for by the boss, and the student who threatened to call the police on the work study office because it was letting the government withhold money she earned and not give it back. Morrison shared with us what she thinks are the most important financial tips of all for people starting out on their own.

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Dont make career decisions based on dollar amounts.

Think big picture. If youre offered X dollars in New York City, its not the same as the same amount in Kansas City. You have to evaluate what you want out of your career and what the benefits are of those decisions, Mary Morrison says. Know the difference between benefits and perks when accepting a job offer, too. You might think its cool to be able to throw a Frisbee down the hall, but whats that compared with dental insurance? she asks.

Figure out how much you will need up front to move and start your life.

Apartment rentals require deposits, as do some utility companies. You may need a moving van, and you may have to wait four weeks for a first paycheck. You have to figure out what youll need to live on before that first paycheck, Morrison says. Few peoples parents can write them a check for $3,000.

Know what your take-home pay is–its not as much as you think.

This starts with filling out your W-4 tax withholding form correctly and getting the right amount of tax taken out of your paycheck. You cant start fashioning a budget without knowing what you have to work with. A paycheck and the dollars into your hand are not the same thing, Morrison says. You and the married guy next door with three kids will not get the same check for the same salary.

Be realistic about your expenses and essentials.

Some students have lived in an apartment before, but after college its not a big party and eating your roommates food late at night, Morrison says. Rather its concerns like transportation, medicines, food, entertainment and incidentals. Plan everything. Many students expect to live on $50 a week for food, so Morrison brings to her class an unappetizing selection of $50 worth of groceries to show them what that money will really buy. You will not live on rice and beans. You will go to the deli. You will buy coffee, she says. You dont have to deprive yourself. Just be realistic. I dont care if they get a pet snake, Morrison says. Just know how much it costs.

Understand cash flow.

Find out not only exactly how much youll be paid, but also precisely when, and when your bills will arrive.

Keep an emergency account.

Bad things happen, and they will happen to you. Youll be sick. Youll be hurt. Life will happen to you the same ways it does to everyone else, Morrison says. Be prepared mentally and financially for this reality.

Know when to use a debit card or credit card.

I think students should have credit cards, Morrison says. They are safer from theft than debit cards, and paying off a credit card every month will help a young person build a credit history and, hopefully, a good credit score. However, for routine purchases like going out to eat, buying gasoline or going to a movie, students should use a debit card, she advises. It will protect them from the typical I spent how much this month? experience. Credit cards should be for major, hopefully planned, significant purchases.

Get renters insurance.

While youre at it, look carefully at the insurance options provided by your employer–everyone needs workers compensation insurance. Never drive with minimum liability auto insurance. Financially protect yourself from a roommate who might run off to Puerto Rico, as Morrison puts it, with a security deposit or legal agreement.

Begin contributing immediately to a 401(k) plan or an IRA account.

Even if you start off slow and modest, it will make a huge difference, Morrison says. You may miss the $50 or so you put aside out of each paycheck, but it will grow and grow and save you from panic later.

Dont be afraid to invest.

I tell them that a savings account is a risky investment, because it means youre betting that there wont be inflation, Morrison says. Diversify, diversify, diversify.

Learn to view the world from a different perspective this summer at Renvyle House with a free weekly try-a-dive in its outdoor heated swimming pool with PADI Centre Scubadive West as part of the hotels Club Atlantic being run this summer.

The two family businesses on the Renvyle peninsula have come together to give you an opportunity to learn a new skill while on holidays at the hotel. This weekly class will be free to residential guests at the hotel and if you enjoy the experience Scubadive West have a discount offer for Renvyle House guests.

Renvyle House Hotel is located on the shores of the Atlantic and is situated on 200 acres which include a private lake at the front door, a beach at the back door, a nine-hole (par 3) golf course, gardens and numerous leisure activities which are free to all its residents. This historic hotel has been looking after guests since 1883 and Ronnie and his team continue this great tradition of Irish hospitality. John McKenna describes it in the Bridgestone 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland 2011 as lsquo;It is hard to know who loves Renvyle more: McKenna adults? Or McKenna children? Guess we will have to just take another trip to this magical little universe..

Renvyle House has a great reputation for hospitality, delicious food and is a relaxing place to take a holiday. Other activities being run at the hotel this summer include a daily kids club, tennis tournaments, fly-fishing lessons twice weekly, and golf competitions. Leisure facilities free to residents include an outdoor heated swimming pool, tennis courts, lawn bowls, croquet and much more. Tegolins Tales Theatre Group will host a drama workshop evening and a story telling evening for children each week. Adults can also enjoy evening entertainment in the bar most nights. At Renvyle House, the only stress is on relaxation.

For more information, telephone 095 46100 or visit the website www.renvyle.com

David Lloyd Leisure Sees Rise in Kids Membership

Growth comes amid concerns over childhood obesity.

London, UK (PRWEB UK) 14 July 2011

Health, sport and leisure operator David Lloyd Leisure has seen an increase in the number of parents wanting their youngsters to keep fit, as concerns rise about levels of childhood obesity in the UK.

In the wake of government guidelines issued this week to tackle worries that both children and adults are spending too much time sitting down, the group reported a marked growth in enquiries and in the number of youngsters taking part in sports and activities.

NHS figures show that nearly a quarter of four and five-year-olds are now overweight or obese and forecasts are for the trend to rise. The government now wants under-fives to be active for at least three hours a day.

David Lloyd Leisure, whose DL Kids programme encourages youngsters to be active while having fun, has seen three per cent net growth in junior members since the beginning of 2011. Participations in kids activities currently stand at 266,000 per month, or an average of 3.2m a year.

The companys head of family, Sarah Hobbs, said educating children about health and fitness from a very early age is fundamental in forming lifelong habits.

“At David Lloyd Leisure, we understand the need to engage under fives in regular exercise that is fun and will give them a great start into the world of physical activity. We provide a range of options for them to help support their development of their major and fine motor skills, building on their experiences through play and imagination games.

“In the last two years, DL Kids has seen a significant growth in participations; to date we have over 3.2 million participations in DL Kids every year. Our junior membership continues to grow with thousands of small children learning to get active, swim, play tennis, supporting parents in the future exercise habits of their children.”

“We believe that if children have a strong habit to be active, then they will continue as they get older and supporting parents and families to this end is what we do.

“Many parents find it difficult to find the time to co-ordinate all of their childrens sporting and leisure activities, so our programmes are designed to do that effectively for them, and all under one roof.”

A recent survey carried out by David Lloyd Leisure found that one in five children aged 6-11 years do not receive any support from their parents when it comes to getting involved in sport outside of school, with a further 50 per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls saying they would play more sport if their parents were prepared to drive them to sports clubs.

The poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 children aged 6-11 and 2,000 parents across the UK, found that despite these figures, a third of parents believe their children should be playing more sport.

“Parents play a vital role in determining how physically active their children are. The results reveal that while parents feel their children should be more active, behaviour is not supporting this belief,” says Sarah Hobbs.

When asked specifically how parents would like to see their children spend their leisure time, playing sport came out on top with 39 per cent, followed by doing homework (16 per cent), playing a musical instrument (15 per cent), arts amp; crafts (8 per cent) and watching television (6 per cent).

Despite this, half of parents confess to watching more than four hours of television per week as a family compared to just 25 per cent who play more than four hours of sport a week with their children.

Note to editors:

For further information about this press release contact Anna-Marie Muldowney on 01707 289833 or email press(at)davidlloyd(dot)co.uk

About David Lloyd Leisure Group

The David Lloyd Leisure Group operates 79 clubs in the UK and a further 10 clubs across Europe.

David Lloyd Leisure has over 450,000 members and employs 6,000 people. This includes an expert health and fitness team of over 750 and more than 450 tennis professionals.

Across all clubs, David Lloyd Leisure has over 150 swimming pools (of which half are indoor) and offers over 10,000 exercise classes per week. Every week 20,000 children learn to swim at David Lloyd Leisure and 14,000 learn to play tennis.

Its racquets facilities are unparalleled with 700 tennis courts as well as 180 badminton courts and 140 squash courts. Additional facilities include health and beauty spas, club lounges with free internet access, crèches, nurseries and specialist sports shops.

# # #

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2011/7/prweb8640925.htm

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Applying to medial school? Take a moment to consider some of the short-term consequences of your enrollment: an intense curriculum coupled with a steep reduction in social and leisure activities, enormous tuition bills with correspondingly large debt, and concerns regarding long-term financial security and medico-legal dangers. It’s enough to make any would-be medical student fall prey to at least a few moments of self-doubt.

Admissions committee members know this and are looking for applications that convey a sense of motivation and enthusiasm durable enough to withstand the various assaults (and insults) a medical education will invariably deliver.

[See which healthcare jobs are on the rise.]

While the personal statement is the figurative &"heart&" of the application and the component most conducive to relaying your passion for medicine, it is merely a part of the &"package&" you are presenting. The personal statement should function as the narrative commentary on the rest of your application, creating a &"theme&" or a &"story&" that coherently pulls together your education (including things like your choice of school/major and comments about extraordinary or extraordinarily poor grades), extracurricular activities, research experience, volunteer and/or community activities, etc.

Think carefully—and honestly—about why you want to be a doctor; ideally this should be done early in your undergraduate years (or earlier), but it must be done before you begin preparing your application. Then think about how and why the things you have spent your time and energy pursuing fit with this motivation and the larger story of who you are. Many, if not most, people don’t take such a strategic approach to their lives, such as choosing what hobbies to pursue by consciously considering which might be most appropriate for a career in medicine.

But, almost every applicant I have met and application I have reviewed can be &"packaged&" to fit a more central theme related to career aspirations with some careful thought and consideration. The year you spent as a waitress helped fund your purchase of premed textbooks; your proclivity for bungee-jumping derives from the same need for excitement and thrills that are drawing you to a career in surgery or emergency medicine; or your incarceration for drug possession led to an epiphany that translated into a future in psychiatry and substance abuse treatment. (OK, maybe that last one needs a little more work.)

[See the 10 most popular medical schools.]

A majority of applications will cite a few broad categories of motivation. For example:

1. I want to help people: It’s probably the most common story being told—and it’s a good one. But if you have a sincere and deep desire to help your fellow human beings, you should have found some way to act on this by the time you’re applying to med school. Volunteer work, community service, humanitarian experiences abroad, and other similar activities are essential in this kind of application and should be highlighted accordingly in your personal statement.

2. Furthering medical science: This is popular amongst science majors, especially if the applicant has significant research experience. But if you’re a liberal arts major who has never set foot in a lab, this is likely not the best route. And if it is, your essay must present a reasonable story for how and why you have decided to make such a drastic departure from the course of study you have pursued thus far, and what skills you will be able to bring with you from the humanities as you pursue your medical or scientific career. (See this recent New York Times op-ed for an eloquent example.)

3. Transformative experience: Often, this experience relates to a personal or family illness. While these applications are often conducive to writing a compelling, even inspirational, personal statement, one must be careful not to dissociate the &"motivation&" from the rest of your application. For example, after your six-month ICU stay and miraculous recovery from debilitating spinal cord injury, did you go on to create a charity or support group for survivors of spinal cord injuries? Did you pursue research or advanced coursework in neurology or stem cell biology? You need to demonstrate how this amazing story led you to build a solid premed résumé.

[See U.S. News's rankings of Best Medical Schools.]

Connecting the dots between your experiences and your motivation for applying to medical school will help you stand out among other applicants. Then, all you’ll have to worry about is the coursework, lack of free time, debt, and potential legal issues…Happy applying!

Joshua Klein is a Board Certified OB/GYN and a Clinical and Research Fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. After earning his medical degree at Harvard Medical School, he completed residency at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

• More Medical School Admissions Doctor posts

Many people dream about how they will spend the eight or more extra hours per day they will have once they no longer need to go to work. However, Americans between ages 65 and 74 only spend about 1.7 hours more per day on leisure activities than the population as a whole, according to the most recent American Time Use Survey, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this week. Instead, most older Americans spend their extra free time lingering slightly longer over everyday activities like meals and household chores and watch considerably more TV than the population as a whole. Here is how Americans spend their time in retirement.

[See 10 Places to Retire on Social Security Alone.]

Sleeping. Retirees generally get more sleep each night than Americans overall, but not as much as you might think. Seniors generally devote 9.67 hours per day to sleep and personal care activities, about 12 minutes more than all individuals age 15 and over.

Watching TV. Watching television is the second most popular activity after sleeping. Retirees spend 3.8 hours per weekday in front of the TV, which is an hour and 15 minutes more screen time each day than the population as a whole.

Leisure activities. Seniors spend significantly more time reading and relaxing or thinking than their younger counterparts, although they spend less than an hour per day on each activity. They also allocate a few minutes more each day to socializing and exercising than individuals overall.

[See 10 Things You Should Know About Your IRA.]

Meals. Retirees linger over meals longer than younger Americans. Seniors between ages 65 and 74 eat and drink for 1.42 hours per day, compared to the 1.25 hours all Americans spend preparing and consuming meals each day.

Household chores. Seniors spend over half an hour longer on household chores per day than the typical American. They allocate 2.41 hours to cleaning and repairs on a typical day, compared to the 1.79 hours most citizens spend managing their household.

Shopping. Older Americans have more time to haggle and comparison shop than their younger counterparts. Seniors spend nearly an hour each day purchasing goods and services.

Working. Many people continue to work past age 65. The typical person between ages 65 and 74 now works for over an hour each day.

[See Companies with the Most Older Workers.]

Helping others. Retirees devote just over half an hour to organizational, civic, and religious activities each day, slightly longer than the 21 minutes the typical American allocates to these activities. While seniors spend significantly less time per day providing care to children or other household members than younger people, they allocate an above average amount of time to helping people who live outside their household.

How Americans Age 65 to 74 Spend Their Day in Hours

(Results for the total population age 15 and older are in parenthesis.)

• Personal care activities (including sleep) 9.67 (9.47)
• Watching TV 3.77 (2.52)
• Household activities 2.41 (1.79)
• Eating and drinking 1.42 (1.25)
• Working 1.15 (3.50)
• Purchasing goods and services 0.94 (0.75)
• Reading 0.62 (0.29)
• Socializing 0.59 (0.55)
• Relaxing and thinking 0.55 (0.28)
• Organizational, civic, and religious activities 0.52 (0.35)
• Leisure computer use 0.38 (0.39)
• Exercise 0.31 (0.29)
• Caring for non-household members 0.31 (0.21)
• Telephone calls, mail, and e-mail 0.23 (0.18)
• Caring for household members 0.11 (0.51)
• Education activities 0 (0.47)

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010.

Twitter: @aiming2retire

Statistics show drowning numbers up in all age groups
Summer is here at last and with it, summertime weather which seemed especially tardy in arriving this year. That means people can finally start enjoying the traditional outdoor activities that come with the season.
Among the leisure activities are those involving swimming pools, lakes or other bodies of water, whether for swimming, boating, fishing or other water-related pursuits.
But besides the fun, there are certain risks involved in these activities and one of those is the risk of drowning. Its an issue that was raised this week when the Lifesaving Society released statistics showing that child drownings in Canada nearly doubled last year, and drownings in all age groups climbed to 404 in 2010 from the 368 recorded in 2009.
While drownings of children under age five accounted for a relatively small number of the total, the spike to 22 from 14 the previous year was considered significant because of the size of that age segment, Lifesaving Society spokesperson Barbara Byers said in a Canadian Press story this week.
Part of the problem, Byers explained, is that toddlers seem to have an almost magnetic attraction to the water. That can make backyard pools a tragedy waiting to happen where youngsters in that age group are concerned.
Theyre not fearful of the water, and if theres a chance to get there, and especially if a young toddler is looking out a window and seeing a glistening pool or a lake, theyre going to want to get there, said Byers.
As anyone with experience around toddlers can attest, they can get into trouble very quickly. And if theres a pool, lake, pond or river involved, tragedy can strike just as quickly. As Byers points out, drowning can happen in as little as 10 to 20 seconds.
The statistics dovetail with results from a new US study on child drownings in portable pools indicating a child dies in such a pool every five days during warm-weather months. The findings, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, showed 209 deaths and 35 near-drownings of children under 12 from 2001 through 2009. Most of the children, 94 per cent, were under five years of age.
In Canada, the number of drownings in the 5-12 age group also showed a marked increase last year, to 18 from 10, and in the 13-17 category, 22 teens drowned compared to 14 the previous year. Even in the adult age group, there were a dozen more drownings in 2010 than a year earlier.
The across-the-board increase in drownings has prompted the Lifesaving Society to rekindle the safety message. One way the organization is doing that is by posting to YouTube a swimming survival video which was inspired by the drowning last July of four-year-old Avery Pringle in the Otonabee River near Peterborough, Ont.
The society noted new Canadians tend to be at high risk for drowning, in part because in Canada they have access to recreational swimming opportunities that may not have existed in their home countries. But newcomers told focus groups they believed swimming to be part of Canadas recreational culture and they didnt want to deprive their children of the fun.
Certainly swimming is an important part of summer fun. Hopefully, Canadians can do that more safely this summer.

Forty-hour workweeks aren’t enough for Butch Demerle to excel on the job anymore.

The manager for General Electric from Cincinnati puts in 11-hour workdays during the week — and occasionally works a weekend
— on top of helping his wife raise their 6-year-old daughter.

“During the week, it’s just work, cut grass, get everything done and then usually just pass out,” said Demerle, 46.

He’s not the only one caught in such an exhausting routine.

Employed Americans are doing more work on weekends and spending more time cleaning and cooking than watching television or
engaging in other leisure activities, according to the 2010 American Time Use Survey, released this week by the US Bureau
of Labor Statistics. The survey is based on interviews with 13,200 people ages 15 or older.

On average last year, the survey shows, American workers clocked 7.9 hours a day on weekdays (the same as the previous year)
and 5.5 hours a day on weekends (30 minutes more than in 2009).

Robyn Carpenter, a 22-year-old nurse’s aide from Mount Vernon, can relate to those results.

“I’m putting more time into work on weekends and picking up overtime for more money,” she said.

Men worked an average of 41 minutes more per day than women in 2010 — down from 56 minutes the previous year.

The American Time Use Survey, conducted since 2003, has shown some fluctuations from year to year but no significant changes,
said Dorinda Allard, who analyzes the survey data.

Women, for example, continue to spend more time on housework than men do.

Last year, the survey shows, 49 percent of women — compared with 20 percent of men — did household chores such as laundry
or cleaning on a typical day. Along the same lines: Nineteen percent more women than men spent time cooking.

Demerle acknowledges the chore disparity at his house.

“My wife works full time as well, and she comes home and starts cooking,” he said. “I’ll take my daughter, and we’ll do whatever
else needs to be done. I think (the responsibilities) depend on your relationship.”

Ashley Stauffer, 26, a part-time nurse from Bucyrus with two daughters, said she has noticed more women balancing full-time
jobs with motherhood.

“Some women don’t have the luxury of staying home with their kids,” she said. “But some women like that.

“I know I like it when I’m at work. I get to talk to adults and not have to talk to a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old all day.”

Because she spends most of her time at home, Stauffer said, naps and bedtime represent the only hours she gets to herself
— about four hours, not counting her own sleep schedule.

“I’m always tending to their needs, cleaning up the house, cleaning up after them, cleaning them.”

Among adults in households with children younger than 6, the survey indicates, women spent 1.1 hours providing physical care
such as bathing or feeding to their children; men averaged 26 minutes doing the same.

Stauffer said her husband helps as much as possible when he’s around.

“When he comes home. he’s right into Daddy mode,” she said. “He cooks, he helps with the girls’ bath time, bedtime — he does
as much as he can even though he works 40-some hours a week.”

Overall, men engaged in leisure activities — reading, socializing and such — slightly more than women did, and they were more
likely to exercise.

The most popular leisure activity for both genders was watching television — which, at an average of 2.7 hours a day, made
up half of the daily leisure-time total.

“If (my wife and I) can actually just sit down and do nothing, we try,” Demerle said. “It sounds kind of strange, but it’s
good to sit at home and do nothing.”

lwynalek@dispatch.com

The economy has obviously slowed down over the past few years. Despite how frantically busy life may seem, so has the average American, who is watching a little more TV, engaging in more leisure activities and hobbies, and catching a little more shuteye compared to a few years ago.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released its annual Time Use Survey for 2010, and much of the info is unsurprising:

*employed men work a little more than employed women (41 minutes more daily)

*far more women than men (cough! slackers) do housework on the average day (49% vs. 20%)

*the age group engaged in the most leisure activities is adults 75 and up (7.7 hours daily), while the group with the least leisure time is adults ages 35 to 44 (4.2 hours daily)

*far more people work on workdays (82%) than on weekends (35%)

Because much of this data changes very little from year to year, minor shifts in time use–a few minutes more here, a few less there–indicate fairly significant changes in behavior. And two of the most notable changes, according to the data, are that Americans are watching TV and sleeping more. In 2010, the average American spent two hours and 31 minutes watching TV, which is 5.4 minutes more than in 2007. The typical individual was also sleeping five more minutes a night in 2010 (8 hours, 23 minutes) compared to 2007.

What to make of this data? Many experts, including Princeton economist Alan Krueger, are blaming the economy. People may have hoped that newly unemployed or underemployed Americans would use their newfound time volunteering, exercising, or engaging in some other productive activity, but as Krueger told the Wall Street Journal:

Last year continued to show the effects of the weak economy, Mr. Krueger said. The amount of time spent watching TV and other nonproductive activities remains extraordinarily high.

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Kruegers research indicates that sleep and TV occupy a ton of the unemployed individuals time. If youre out of work, youre probably sleeping an hour longer than a person with a job, and a whopping one-quarter of your waking hours are spend sitting in front of the tube. Another study of the typical unemployed individual showed that while he spends 200 minutes a day watching TV, and just 40 minutes a day looking for work.

(MORE: Economic Doom, By the Numbers)

USA Today leads its coverage of the new BLS survey by stating that more Americans are working on weekends, but I dont see that in the data. In 2010, 35% of all workers worked on weekends; this includes people working at restaurants and retail stores, who are obviously needed on the job on weekends. Thats the same percentage working on weekends in 2006, according to the BLS. In 2007, 36% of Americans worked on weekends. There were probably more Americans working on weekends a few years back mostly because there were more jobs to be had–including those part-time gigs at restaurants, department stores, and such.

The release of the BLS survey happens to coincide with the publication of a NY Times story about the rising popularity of home brewing. Membership in the American Homebrewers Association has doubled over the last five years, and home brew supply stores report booming business. So what? Well, home brewing is one of the leisure activities occupying more time of those who are spending less time at work. Gary Glass, president of the Homebrewers Association, tells the Times:

Part of the theory, he said, is that people have more time for hobbies when they are unemployed or underemployed.

Brewing beer, or pretty much any hobby for that matter, is probably time better spent than sitting in front of the TV. And, like gardening and a few other hobbies, brewing beer comes with the bonus that by going DIY youre saving money you would have otherwise spent on beer–or perhaps on some hot new gadget you saw advertised on TV.

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Metro Moncton municipalities are in the process of collecting their residents wish lists in regards to recreational and leisure activities and facilities. Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview have all been asking for the publics feedback to help them decide where they need to improve the most in these areas.

It really is an ongoing process, said Rod Higgins, the City of Monctons general manager of parks and leisure services. It really came down to a couple of basic things.

The basics included a full neighbourhood. Higgins said people wanted to be able to walk to a park and have natural green spaces.

They were happy with the quantity of parks, but they werent happy with the quality of our parks, he said.

So improving the parks is one thing the city has decided will be on top of the list.

Moncton held 15 meetings with over 700 people in attendance to discuss their recreation plan. Another popular item was the trail system.

The city created a trail plan in 2000, called Millenium Trails. They have been working on connecting the entire city in phases. One phase was the North West trail, which held its grand opening Friday.

This is something weve worked on for a long time, said Mayor George LeBlanc at the ribbon cutting ceremony. We want people to be able to get from one end of the city to the other easily without having to get in a car.

This is just phase one of the process, said Higgins. Phase two is looking at programming and recreation while phase three is facilities.

The process has been very good so far, he said.

Jocelyn Cohoon, director of leisure services with the City of Moncton, was at the opening of the new North West trail.

We want to promote active living. We want to reduce our carbon footprint. We want the safest routes for bikers. Its all about education.

Dieppe is right in the middle of collecting their feedback. They have a leisure survey residents can access on their website. Raymond Bourque, leisure and recreation facilities department director with Dieppe, said residents havent been surveyed regarding recreation for more than a decade.

All the data will be presented in July, he said. Right now, we dont really have results, but we have an idea of what people are going to say.

Bourque said a new ice pad and improving the parks will most likely be on the list.

We have a lot of challenges. We will have to decide which one will come first. We are going to respond to where the needs are, he said.

Riverview has had the push on for a couple years now to improve their recreational activities and facilities. One of which was the Riverview Town Market opened just last month. So far, the market seems to be a big success. A new dog park has also been added to the town, located at the end of Biggs Drive.

Lewis said this is the second year for the Bounce event. The previous year saw more than 1,500 people come out to the event. This year, Lewis added a new element to the event: vendor tents. They offered attendees information about businesses around the city that support healthy living.

All of the vendors under the big top are health and wellness related and are Coppell businesses and organizations, she said. The purpose of the vendor tent is to showcase all that the city of Coppell has to offer in the way of health, fitness and nutrition. In addition to the Coppell businesses, the citys Aquatic and Recreation Center will have a booth that features all of the fitness programs/classes and sports available throughout the year. We had 18 vendors this year.

Lewis said everyone who came out to the event really enjoyed themselves and that Bounce is quickly becoming a very popular event around the city.

Bounce initially started when Lewis noticed that at other city functions families were requesting to have more inflatable houses for the children. Lewis said she took that feedback and ran with it.

Observation and feedback were key in my decision to create Bounce. At our other events throughout the year that included inflatables, the lines were always long for the duration of the event with kids waiting patiently for their turn to slide, bounce or bungee, she said. We have surveys available at each event. I noticed a recurring request, more bounce houses. By combining what I observed with what the residents of Coppell requested, Bounce was born.

Lewis then combined the event with the Health and Wellness initiative, which promotes the city of Coppell as a healthy lifestyle living environment for its residents.

The Health and Wellness initiative was set into action by the Coppell 2030 Plan. Residents choose to make Coppell their hometown for many reasons including the opportunities for an active and healthy lifestyle, Lewis said. The parks and recreation department is one of the city entities that has been tasked with providing quality facilities, services and opportunities to the community fostering healthy recreational and leisure activities.

Coppell businesses offer many activities and classes for residents wanting to live an active lifestyle and support the Health and Wellness initiative. Some activities include: karate, boot camps and local sport leagues.

For information about Coppell events, contact the Coppell Parks and Recreation Department at 972-462-5100.