Volunteers and Parks and Recreation officials introduced Friends of Warren County Parks and Recreation, a new 501(c)(3) formed to raise private funds for scholarships, capital projects and mobile recreation programming.

Chris (the Judge Executive) and Jay Grable introduced Mark Graves, who leads the volunteer board behind the group. Graves and Brady Kane described an initial fundraising and sponsorship plan that aims to provide youth athletics grants, sponsor capital improvements such as scoreboards and bleachers, and underwrite an enhanced mobile recreation bus to reach neighborhoods with limited transportation.

Graves and staff said the Friends group had raised about $11,000 in initial contributions and secured an anonymous founding donation of $10,000 plus a separate sponsorship from Atmos Energy. Brady Kane explained a youth athletics grant program that would allow local businesses and organizations to sponsor groups of students who otherwise could not afford league registration. "We can hopefully find sponsors in the community... and use that money to effectively sponsor grants for students who can apply and use that funding towards participation in parks and recreation program," Kane said.

The presenters said Parks and Recreation worked with Warren County Public Schools to secure three school buses for the mobile recreation program and planned to train four CDL drivers to operate the routes. The mobile unit would expand the department’s current vans and allow staff to transport participants to events and Parks facilities, particularly on the west side of the county.

Staff described multiple sponsorship tiers with branding and promotion benefits, and outlined possible capital uses for donated funds including emergency response after storm damage, scoreboards, additional bleachers and light towers. The group also outlined experiential sponsorships such as an indoor planetarium or a mobile theater trailer.

Judge Executive Chris said the Friends group will solicit sponsors over the next 12 months and return to the court with progress updates and reports on grant distributions and capital projects.