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Warren County’s ‘Thrive’ program reports record summer reach; parks and library cite 20,303 participant contacts
Summary
Warren County Parks and Recreation and Warren County Public Library reported growth across summer camps, pop-ups and special events under the Thrive partnership, citing about 20,303 total participant contacts and targeted outreach to West Warren County.
Warren County officials reported Thursday that the county’s Thrive partnership — a collaboration among the Parks Department, the public library, Warren County Public Schools and other partners — provided expanded summer programming and outreach that county staff said reached roughly 20,303 participant contacts in the 2024–25 season.
The county’s Thrive team described four summer camps (Castle and Quest, Carnival, Dino Dig and National Parks camp), about 30 unique pop-up locations, and thousands of campers and market-party attendees across the season. Presenters told the fiscal court the program is focused on movement, media and mentorship and noted growing league participation and local youth employment opportunities through staffing the initiative.
Chris (Warren County Parks staff), Leah Sperlin (special projects manager, Warren County Parks and Recreation) and Emily Wootun (community development manager, Warren County Public Library) delivered the update. They said the parks department system recorded over 700,000 participants in fiscal-year 2024–25 across all parks and recreation services, a 3.8% increase from the prior fiscal cycle, and that league-sponsored program participation rose about 20 percent.
Program highlights presented to the court included: Castle and Quest Camp (about 500 campers), Carnival Camp (582 campers, 680 market-party attendees), Dino Dig (nearly 900 campers) and National Parks Camp (about 450 campers). Presenters said the department recorded roughly 10,900 children served directly by parks staff activities alone in the program’s seventh year, and that pop-ups extended services to neighborhoods, apartment complexes, schools and day cares unable to travel to central parks.
Officials described a targeted outreach effort in West Warren County that served more than 7,000 participants in an area described as having a recreational gap. The county also said the parks department added two staff positions during the previous year and deployed a new mobile recreation unit to increase coverage.
Judicial and fiscal-court members praised the program’s youth-employment and mentorship elements and described the Thrive partnership as an example of county-city cooperation. Presenters said they will continue to track participation and plan expanded services for 2025–26.
