City of Gonzales
CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT
STAFF REPORT
TO: Honorable Mayor Rios and City Council
DATE: January 21, 2025
FROM: Carmen Gil, City Manager
THROUGH: Carmen Gil, City Manager
SUBJECT: Community Engagement & Recreation Departments Activity Reports Current Activities
Kid Power
• In November, we had 33 kids enrolled in Kid Power. We continue to help guide them with homework and do various arts and crafts with turkeys and continue to play games outside. We kicked off our first art project with a Day of the Dead activity skull. We also talked about the Day of the Dead, where it originated and what it means to celebrate it. • Fall Camp took place on November 25-27, and we had 23 kids registered. We focused on Thanksgiving activities which included reading the book “Tom the Turkey”, we made a corn craft, and we also had a breakfast party and pajama day on the last day of Fall Camp. • For the month of December, we had a total of 33 kids registered for Kid Power. We decorated our tree this year Charlie Brown themed. The kids made ornaments to put on the tree but were also able to take them home before the Christmas break. We played games on their last day and the kids earned Christmas themed prizes. We played quite a few team building games where the kids AGENDA
ITEM
8 had to stuff a t-shirt with as many balloons as possible, and whatever group filled them up the most, won.
• Winter Camp had a total of 17 kids registered. We talked about New Year's traditions and what they were going to do the night of New Year's Eve. We had a pizza party for them for New Year’s Eve and hosted our own New Year Countdown for them with noise makers they created.
City Sports League
• Gonzales Youth Basketball League registration is going well. Our registration period was extended and will now end on January 5th. Our PreK-TK registration has 11 participants so far.
Our boy’s division which includes 4 different grade divisions, Kinder-1st, 2nd-3rd, 4th-5th and 6th-8th currently has a total of 57 participants. total. Our all-girls travel league currently has 21 participants. We have 3 age divisions for our girl’s league. We will run a 7U, 10U and 13U age division. We’re hoping to get a few more players before the registration period ends. • This winter break we will be offering Youth Basketball Open Gym for grades 4th-8th at the Fairview Middle School gym. It will be offered for 9 days during the break from 5pm to 8pm. • Gonzales Adult co-ed volleyball league was a success. The season ran smoothly. Our championship games were the week of December 16th. We started with our “C” bracket championship game on Monday Dec 16th. The game was a fun one to watch. Team Amada beat Ball Busters in two sets. Wednesday December 18th was the “B” bracket championship game and Thursday December 19th was the “A” bracket championship game. These games were a bit more exciting. Both games went to 3 sets. Both games ended with a winning game 15-12 in the 3rd set.
The “B” bracket champions were Grave Diggers, and the “A” bracket champions were Gonzales Most Wanted. Grave Diggers beat the Savages and Gonzales Most Wanted beat Sneak Attack.
Looking forward to another great season next year.
Recreation/ Community Engagement
• On November 6th, we hosted a Veterans Day Ceremony at Central Park. We had a total of 27 participants that paid to have a sign set up at Central Park, we hope to continue hosting this event in future years. We also would like to thank the American Legion and the American Auxiliary Legion Post 81 for their generous contribution towards the signs. • In November and December, we continued hosting monthly Senior Art and Cooking Demos through a partnership with Alliance on Aging, Taylor Farms Family Health & Wellness Center, and the Gonzales Adult School. We were also given the good news that the classes would be extended through the end of June 2025! We hope community members take advantage of these free opportunities.
• The Recreation Department hosted our annual Holiday Lights Event held on 4th Street on Saturday, December 7th from 4:30-7:30PM. We had a total of 14 vendors, raffles prizes, games, and the kids had the opportunity to write a letter to Santa as well as meet him! • We were scheduled to host our annual Holiday Lights Parade on Saturday, December 14th, however, due to the low number of registrations, and weather forecast for that day, we decided it would be best to cancel.
• On Tuesday, December 17th the Recreation Department went out to judge the homes that were registered for our annual Christmas Yard Decorating Contest! In total, we received a total of 6 registrations. We had 3 winners which received a Yard Sign for them to be able to showcase all their hard work.
Gonzales Youth Council
• On November 9th the GYC met with other Youth Councils including Soledad, Greenfield, and CHISPA Teen Leadership Council to present their results from their 9-week Community Asset Mapping Project. The students focused on asking a set of the same questions across all the cities, in addition to including a couple of questions that pertained specifically to their community. • On November 7th
, the GYC were given the opportunity to participate in a “Furniture Sit Test” where they were given the opportunity to view the potential furniture pieces for the Gonzales Teen Innovation Center and provide feedback on the pieces they would like to see in the space. • In December, the Youth Council held their last meeting of the semester where they were also able to give final updates regarding their 2 action projects, surrounding Education and Tenant Rights.
Activities in the Planning Phase
The Recreation & Community Engagement Department looks forward to continuing to bring events and activities for people of all ages in our community, including our larger annual events which include the City of Gonzales Car Show, Fall Festival, Holiday Lights & Holiday Lights Event.