Sports

Recreational Improvements Coming to Route 1: VOICE, Others Celebrate Funding Approval

VOICE, along with parents, students, faith leaders and youth, celebrated their progress to improve youth recreation facilities and programming in Route 1.

Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) organized a 200-person public action to celebrate their progress on improving youth recreation facilities and programming in Route 1.

More than $1 million has been approved for Mount Vernon High School and West Potomac High School thanks to Supervisor Gerry Hyland, according to a recent news release. The group and supporters — including parents, students, faith leaders and youth — gathered at West Potomac High School for the short celebration around 7 p.m. Monday.

In the last year, VOICE leaders allied with West Potomac and Mount Vernon High School youth and parents to:

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  • Work with Hyland (Mt Vernon) to identify the first $1.4million for synthetic turf fields at W. Potomac & Mt. Vernon High Schools;
  • Get the field at Muddy Hole Farm park re-lined so it is now regulation-size and new football goal posts installed working with Supervisor McKay (Lee); and
  • Hold two successful Spanish-language sports/activities registration events in Audubon Mobile Home Park - where over one thousand youth live - and secure a commitment from the management to open the basketball court on the property, clean up and pave a street in a previously dangerous area, to build a small soccer field for youth in Audubon.

The mothers who reside at Audobon Trailer Park are also calling for an athletic field and neighborhood youth center. Currently, there is no public park less than one mile away from the neighborhood, which has more than 1,500 youth.

During the ceremony Monday, a 17-year-old young woman who grew up in the Audobon Trailer Park presented a plan, created by Spanish-speaking neighborhood moms, to turn an underutilized parking lot and vacant commercial space into a soccer field and larger neighborhood center for the Audubon Mobile Home Park and Murraygate area.

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The public action was hosted by VOICE member congregations including Bethlehem Baptist Church, Good Shepherd Catholic Church, and VOICE of Mount Vernon, which is made up of members from St Luke’s Episcopal Church, Mount Vernon Unitarian Church and others. Organizations that have also assisted and supported VOICE include West Potomac High School Wolverine Athletic Booster Club.


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