Archive: Around Town

Now that the first snow has dusted Lansing the Town Recreation Department is looking toward indoor recreation programs for kids and adults.  With robust offerings year 'round, the Rec Department is offering new sessions of some of their most popular programs, including karate, bowling, basketball, and for adults swimming and cardio step class.  "We just wrapped up our Fall outdoor programs," says Lansing Recreation Director Steve Colt.  "Soccer and football were really successful.  We're starting to head into our traditional Fall programming."

A breakout surprise for the department was the success of the karate program.  First offered in 2006, the expectation was that it would attract a dozen or more kids to the program.  But when registration for the first session was done more than 30 kids and some adults had signed up.  It has been going strong ever since.  "The Karate program is pretty well established now and it runs throughout the year," Colt says.  "They're always looking for new members to join that.  Robin McColley is awesome.  Robin and Gail Lejoie are perfect for this program.  It's an offering that we're able to make that we had never made before.  I can't even say it's for a certain demographic any more because all sorts of people are doing it.  It fit a niche."

One feature that makes the karate program unique is that families can take the classes together.  "A lot of parents are doing it with their kids," Colt notes.  "I think that any time the whole family can do a recreation activity together, that's a great thing.  It's been a real success story."


More than 30 kids signed up for bowling this year, exceeding last year's numbers.  The program busses third and fourth graders to the Bowladrome and back so parents can pick them up at the elementary school.  The Rec Department also runs a gymnastics pprogram at Fingerlakes Gymnastics Academy on Friday afternoons.  The program is geared for kids grades K-4. 

Last but not least is the youth basketball program for boys and girls in grades four through six.  "We've changed our format a little bit," Colt says.  "We're going to go back to the way we did it several years ago where each grade is separate, as are the boys and girls.  It will take place in the high schoool gym one evening a week and Saturday afternoons.  That will start on November 8th and wraps up on December 20th."

Two programs that are perennially popular with adults are the cardio step class and Adult Swim.  The latter is at the Lansing High School pool as always.  The program begins November 4th and will go through 12 dates until December 18th.  The noon swim time is open to all adults.  "If you're a stay at home mom or dad or you have a business that you run from home and want to get away for 45 minutes and get a nice workout," Colt says.  "It's not structured.  Everybody is welcome."

The next session of the step cardio strength class starts November 10th Mondays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30.  It is held in the courtroom at the Town Hall.  "It's more of a focus on getting people back in shape," Colt says.  "It's a nice low impact exercise.  You can work as hard at it as you want.  Anything that fights obesity and all the illnesses that come with it is a great thing.  Marsha Larson does a nice of it, and this program runs throughout the whole calendar year."

Earlier versions of some of these programs competed with popular outdoor programs and nice weather that made people want to be outside.  But the falling leaves and snow like that we saw Wednesday are bringing more people indoors.  "I think this is coming into a very popular time," Colt says.  "The weather is turning bad and people know they can't do things outside any more.  It really starts to be more heavily attended now and people should probably get registered as soon as they can."

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