North Belle Vernon Community Bank Park Robert J. Sokol April 20, 2018

Physical Benefits of Recreation Recreational activities, especially outdoors, can greatly improve physical health. People who recreate schedule fewer office visits, maintain lower body fat, have lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Mental Health Improvements Participating in recreational activities helps manage stress. It provides a sense of balance and self-esteem, and can directly reduce anxiety and depression.

Improving the Quality of Your Life People who make recreation a priority are more likely to feel satisfied with their lives overall. American Recreation Coalition Study, 2000.

Health & Environmental Benefits Significant reductions in stress and lowered blood pressure can be correlated to the length of stay in visits to parks. Penn State University Parks and protected public lands improve water quality, protect groundwater, prevent flooding, improve the quality of the air we breathe, provide vegetative buffers to development, produce habitat for wildlife, and provide a place for children and families to connect with nature and recreate outdoors together.

Social Importance Parks: Are a tangible reflection of community quality of life Provide identity for citizens, a sense of pride and community cohesion One of the most important factors in “livable communities” Provide gathering places for families, individuals of all ages and social groups Provide places for health and well-being Can reduce crime and juvenile delinquency.

Economic Value $140 billion in economic activity and generated nearly 1 million jobs in 2013. When combined with the National Park Service and state park systems, public parks are responsible for $200 billion in annual economic activity (NRPA, 2016). Increase property values. Trees in cities save $400 billion in storm water retention facility costs. (American Forests) One of top three reasons that business cite in relocation decisions

Key Economic Benefits Parks create an economic benefit for both governments and individuals. Proximity to parks increases property value, thereby increasing property tax revenue. Parks can attract tourism revenue to local restaurants, hotels, snack shops, and stores. Parks decrease health costs and support productivity.

Conclusion My presentation used the NBV Community Bank Outdoor recreational facility as its example because that’s where I am from and that’s what I am most familiar with. The NBV Community Bank Park is just 1- piece in a 100 - piece puzzle of attractions for our area. We have multiple golf courses and can create golf packages for visitors, we have two major rivers in the Mon and Yough where we have boating, kayaks, fishing, walking trails, and bike trails, we have two major areas for hotels in Bentleyville and Rostraver for visitors to stay, we have many different festivals, ethnic days, athletic competition tournaments, get-a-way weekend possibilities, we have restaurant, easy and convenient accessibility via the interstates, we have major farms, we have opportunities for small town USA shopping sprees with our many little towns, we have the number one attraction in Falling Water, we have the Aquatorium with great music, and many more attractions. What we do NOT have is someone to put all of this together for us. We work to promote our areas in segments, but not as a whole. We do not have a designated website just for our area which includes Washington County, Westmoreland County, Fayette County, and Greene County. Once we can find the leaders for our general area who are willing to put our area first ahead of the specific areas they are from, we will become a major tourist attraction area because of the huge diversity of attractions we do have. Maybe the best way to approach this dilemma is put together a commission of people from our general areas representing the different organizations we have now. In the meantime, we all need to recognize the high and important value of outdoor recreational facilities and how it improves everything. we would want to improve about our area.