To commemorate providing centralized campus recreation for 10 years, Ohio University's Ping Recreation Center is playing host to a reception today from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The event is open to all students, faculty and anyone who uses Ping, said Melissa Toretch, Ping's assistant director. Cake, punch and refreshments will be served in the Ping Center lounge, she said.
The theme of the celebration is 10 Years of Recreation at Ohio University
according to an OU Communications and Marketing news release. A collection of pictures, newspaper articles and other memorabilia from Ping's construction and opening will be on display during the reception and throughout February.
The 168,000-square-foot Ping Center is named for Charles J. Ping, president of OU from 1975 to 1994. Before the facility's opening Jan. 6, 1996, campus recreation activities were housed in Grover Center, Toretch said.
Campus recreation didn't exist until Ping she said. You had Bird Arena and the Aquatic Center. Activities existed but not all in the same place.
Now Ping houses gymnasiums, group fitness and multi-purpose rooms, cardiovascular and free-weight rooms and a running track, according to the Web site www.ohiou.edu/recreation/PING/ping.htm.
In January 2006, Ping Center had 89,000 student visits, with another 2,000 visits from faculty, staff and other members, Toretch said.
The reception occurs on National Recreational Sports and Fitness Day, created in 1999 to celebrate recreational sport across the nation, according to the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association's Web site, www.nirsa.org.
- Meredith Barnett
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Meredith Barnett
