Mayor Breea Clark launches new initiative focused on exercise

Feb. 28—Norman Mayor Breea Clark has a new goal to get Norman residents up and moving.

To accomplish that mission, the City of Norman, along with the Parks and Recreations Department, kicked off a new monthly initiative called "Move with the Mayor" Saturday morning at the 12th Ave. Recreation Center.

"It has two missions — first, to get people to realize what we have right here in Norman in terms of recreations and opportunities to move your body, " Clark said. "Secondly, COVID-19 has really highlighted how being unhealthy and obese can actually be very detrimental to your health. This can really introduce you to different ways to be physical."

The series, scheduled for the fourth Saturday every month through October, will feature different activities at various parks and outdoor locations around Norman and is meant to show off the feature of new facilities.

"We've been working so hard with Norman Forward to create new facilities for residents to enjoy," Clark said. "And COVID has everyone at home, so they might have missed what has opened and what their tax dollars paid for."

During the kickoff of the series, Jolly Brown, one of four volunteers from the OKC Pickleball Club, gathered a dozen participants who were anxious to learn the rules to a game many have never played. She was encouraged by the diversity of the crowd in attendance.

"Part of what we hope to accomplish is to introduce people to the sport," Brown said. "Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the US and a lot of people still don't know about it. But the other thing about it is it's for all ages. We have younger kids that play, there's college students in their 20's to people in their 60's, and we are all playing together."

The club also took the opportunity to educate the public on locations where they can play the game, a key goal of the series.

"We have six outdoor pickle ball court out here [at 12th Ave. Rec Center] that are just gorgeous," said Brown. " They are more open play, so it's more of a show up and play situation. It's just a fun great sport that is easy to pickup. It's just for everybody."

While some on the courts applauded the series as a way to try new sports, Pickleball player Neva Hanes sees it as another way to keep herself and other safe and healthy.

"One of the things they don't address as much as other things like washing your hands and staying away from people is taking care of your immune system," said Hanes. "Typically, these kinds of athletes are healthy, they take care of themselves and stay healthy. I think it's a really good thing for her (Clark) to do [to come] up with really good new ideas to bring a community together and get them outside. I think its a fabulous thing."

While Clark is encouraging Norman residents to attend the series, participants are still required to follow COVID-19 protocols with masks and social distancing, with some exceptions in place.

"With the rules, there is an exceptions for sports where you're breathing heavily so I probably won't be wearing a mask when I'm running a couple of miles at Ruby Grant," said Clark. "But everything else we expect you to have your mask on and be socially distant to stay safe. We're lucky the [case] numbers are going down and we want to keep it that way."

The next outdoor activity in the series will be a hike at Saxon Park on Saturday, March 27. To find a complete list of activities that the series will offer, visit normanok.gov/events/move-mayor-pickleball.