The South Haven City Council has been introduced to the community’s new recreation director.
Chris Van Hekken has come to the area from Grand Haven, where he served as the director of the Northwest Ottawa Recreation Authority. He addressed the council this week to talk about things he’s been working on since starting, which includes meeting with the community.
“Our goals are to make our programs inclusive, that all people, youth and adults, will feel welcome,” Van Hekken said. “We’re starting to implement programming.”
Van Hekken said the South Haven Area Recreation Authority has organized a new basketball program for middle school girls, and something similar for the boys is coming soon. He added work is underway on a new centralized website.
“That will help families in the community that either that for their children, if they want to play a little league baseball, rocket football, swimming or wrestling, they’ll have one landing spot.”
Van Hekken said the website should be launched by the end of November. Another recent accomplishment that he cited was the groundbreaking at the Riverwoods property, 50 acres of new park space SHARA just bought from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Van Hekken is the first full-time community recreation director in South Haven. The city, South Haven Public Schools, and South Haven Township all contribute to SHARA, making the hire possible.
