ALBEMARLE — At the Albemarle City Council meeting on Monday night, councilmembers honored Albemarle Parks and Recreation for recently winning two awards for its Project Next Step program.
The parks and rec department took home the Centralina Cross-Community Collaboration Award and the North Carolina Recreation and Parks Association Innovative Program Award for its summer learning program geared for Albemarle Middle School students.
Born out of a shared goal project between the department and Stanly County Schools, Project Next Step was designed to bridge the gap between the academic and physical needs of students in the Albemarle community, while also improving their access to learning strategies and interactive opportunities with Stanly County Community College.
“This initiative was a collaboration between Stanly County Schools and Parks and Recreation,” Albemarle Mayor Ronnie Michael said. “Project Next Step provided academic enrichment and real world experiences to help set a foundation for success for Albemarle Middle School students. We also want to recognize Parks and Recreation for earning another prestigious award related to the Project Next Step program, as the North Carolina Recreation and Parks Association honored Albemarle Parks and Rec for the innovative program.”
Lisa Kiser, director of Albemarle Parks and Recreation, spoke to the council about the project and its subsequent accolades.
“I want to recognize my other staff from E.E. Waddell who participated in this program and are working tonight at the center or trying to take comp time off — that’s Billy McRae and Brent Kirvin,” Kiser said. “We’re super excited that it was a statewide award that we won from North Carolina Recreation and Parks Association.”
Project Next Step was created to enact a 60-day structured environment where middle school students could participate in field trips throughout Stanly County in order to promote science, technology, engineering, arts, and math learning experiences.
Building a new opportunity for those in search of one, Albemarle Parks and Rec noted that 51 of the 53 students acknowledged that they had never been selected to participate in a program before.
During a visit to the farm at Juneberry Ridge, students engaged with nature and completed hands-on activities with animals while speaking to local agricultural professionals; program participants also completed a lengthy hike at Morrow Mountain and later provided their feedback on how they were able to mentally and physically handle the task.
Elsewhere, Project Next Step students — many of whom stated to counselors their reservations about attending a higher-learning environment in the future — were exposed to field trips to colleges and universities so that they could better visualize their own ability to learn and excel.
The Albemarle City Council is set to meet again on Jan. 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.