The Porter County Parks & Recreation Board will hear a special presentation at their February 5th meeting on proposed plans for a new education center at Sunset Hill Farm County Park. The project is also known as the Raise the Barn project, a long standing effort by the Porter County Parks Board and the Porter County Parks Foundation to expand educational programming at the park.
Vavrek Architects, the group tasked with creating the project plans, will present several plans and drawings to the board, giving them options to determine the most successful course of action for positively impacting the community and increasing park programs.
The overall goal of this project is to be able to serve more residents, guests and area students. The Porter County Parks Department serves approximately 10,000 students a year through its free field trip and outdoor education programs. The new education center will allow the County Parks Department to expand this service to additional schools and grade levels. The building is slated to include a multi-purpose room, a large banquet/rental hall, office space, new restrooms and an outdoor education room dedicated to past Parks Superintendent Art Willing. The Center will also be available to the public for fundraisers, family events and recreation programming purposes.
The addition of this facility to Sunset Hill Farm would allow staff and volunteers to provide new and expanded fitness, wellness and enrichment programs at little or no cost to community members. This would include expanding their current partnership with schools throughout Porter County to provide extended fieldtrips and educational experiences for local elementary and middle school students.
Porter County Parks has already begun to partner with many local businesses as part of this project, including the Willing Family, Porter County Community Foundation, Porter Regional Hospital, Teacher’s Credit Union, Tudor Flooring, Blachly, Tabor, Bozik & Hartman, Olga P. Real Estate, Cargill, Bounce ‘N’ Around and Laser Ball NWI.
For more information on this project, contact Porter County Parks & Recreation at 219-465-3586 or visit www.portercountyparks.org.
