Philip Martinez works out at the Paul Derda Recreation Center in Broomfield on Thursday. The center sees 35,000 to 40,000 paid visitors a month. ( David R. Jennings )
The Paul Derda Recreation Center's 10th anniversary will include events and activities from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Activities include guided tours, guest speakers, demonstrations of popular fitness classes, a drawing for tickets to Nuggets and Avalanche games and a dodgeball tournament. For the full schedule, visit broomfield.org[1] and click "Recreation."
BROOMFIELD -- A symbol of fitness and community, the Paul Derda Recreation Center will celebrate its 10th anniversary Saturday -- how else but with a slate full of activities aimed at getting people moving and helping them break a sweat.
The celebration, which will include tours, fitness classes and a 10k run, aims to celebrate the role the center has played in the community for the past 10 years.
"It's been a really family-friendly facility, a real social center," said namesake Paul Derda, a longtime community member sometimes dubbed "Mr. Broomfield" for his involvement in so many local events.
Derda, who served as director of parks and recreation from 1978 to 2002, said Broomfield has prioritized wellness by making parks and open space accessible to residents and designing family-centered amenities, such as the rec center, The Bay and others.
Yet it is the center's visitors who make Broomfield a lively place, Derda said.
"It's the people in the community that make this place so special," he said.
Derda said he was surprised and honored when community members sent around a petition to name the recreation center after him.
To address the needs of a growing community, especially after Broomfield became a county in 2001, the $21.5 million Derda Center was completed in 2003. Broomfield paid for construction using certificates of participation, where certificates sold to investors raise money for the facility, and the recreation center and land are used as collateral, according to design plans for the building.
The building was one of the facilities that to opened or expanded after Broomfield became a county. The Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library, for example, updated and expanded in 2001, according to the city website.
In the 10 years since the Derda Center opened, "it has just grown and grown" in usage, said facility manager Matt Gulley. It now receives about 35,000 to 40,000 paid visitors a month, Gulley said.
Many of those users drop by a few times a week to use the basketball courts, run on the indoor track or take exercise classes.
"We always get the crowd that is there just to work out, but we will always be a community-based facility that is also focused on families," Gulley said.
Derda said his trips to the recreation center always remind him of Broomfield's diverse population, whose residents come to swim, lift weights or take classes. He often sees parents bringing infants to their first parent-child classes, and he also sees seniors coming to Silver Sneakers class, which includes a 99-year-old woman who is in great health in part because of her fitness regimen, Derda said.
The center strives to be a facility with something for everyone, he said.
That's something Jessie Chastain said is a major draw for her family.
"I drop the kids off at the child care center, and it's an hour and a half to myself," she said.
Her children, 4-year-old Oliver and 1-year-old Tessa, play with their peers while she takes exercise classes, checks her iPad or catches up on her to-do list.
"This place is a lifesaver," she said. "I've never had a cheaper gym membership."
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