TRICYCLE/WHEELCHAIR TRACK OPENS IN ENCINO PARK.Byline: MARK KELLAM Valley News Writer It's a track that levels the playing field for children with and without disabilities. A dedication ceremony was held May 8 for a new tricycle/wheelchair track in Encino Park, located north of Ventura Boulevard Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east-west thouroughfares in the San Fernando Valley; as it was originally a part of the El Camino Real (the trail between Spanish missions), Ventura Boulevard is the oldest route in the San Fernando Valley. It was also U.S. and east of Genesta Avenue. It is part of the Encino Community Center, which is located to the west. The track includes mock stop and yield signs, along with reproductions of gas pumps and a country store. Lee Marks, director of the community center and park, came up with the idea a few years ago and began efforts to make it a reality. Laura Mamer, a park advisory board member, and Judy Kessler Block, president of the park advisory board, worked with Marks on the project. Mamer served as project manager for the track. At the dedication ceremony, James L. Combs, assistant general manager/operations west for the L.A. Department of Recreation and Parks, said the ceremony was one of the most unique dedications he'd ever attended. ``This (track) allows children of all abilities to play side by side,'' he said. At the beginning of the ceremony, children from the Encino Parents Nursery School nursery school, educational institution for children from two to four years of age. It is distinguishable from a day nursery in that it serves children of both working and nonworking parents, rarely receives public funds, and has as its primary objective to promote , located near the track, carried in flags. Their processional was followed by a kindergarten kindergarten [Ger.,=garden of children], system of preschool education. Friedrich Froebel designed (1837) the kindergarten to provide an educational situation less formal than that of the elementary school but one in which children's creative play instincts would be class from Encino Elementary leading the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance, in full, Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, oath that proclaims loyalty to the United States. and its national symbol. and singing ``This Land Is Your Land.'' After the dedication ribbon was cut, the nursery school students were the first to take a spin around the track, smiling and laughing all along the way. The site where the track is located was previously a shuffleboard shuffleboard, sport in which players use cue sticks to push disks onto a scoring diagram at either end of a concrete or terrazzo court. The court is 52 ft (15.85 m) long and 6 ft (1.83 m) wide. The bases of the triangular scoring diagrams are parallel to and 8 ft (2. court, which wasn't used very often. Marks approached the Encino Rotary Rotary can refer to:
The club agreed and has helped support various activities held before and during construction of the track. Another plaque plaque (plak) 1. any patch or flat area. 2. a superficial, solid, elevated skin lesion. attachment plaques recognizing the Rotary Club's support is in place at the new track. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Some of the first children taking a spin around the new tricycle/wheelchair track are, left to right, Adriel Azera, Sherazade Irani, Lisette Keating, Amelia Lee and her big sister, Annette. Mark Kellam/Valley News |
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