By ANDY McANALLY

As the city of Pendleton continues to find ways to market our great city to potential new businesses, tourist and families looking to relocate, our city and community are doing some great things to help build a strong foundation for future growth. When it comes to supporting kids, nobody does it better than Pendleton.  

A quick tour can help us appreciate its many assets geared specifically towards kids and the youth of our community.

First stop: The Rudy Rada Skate Park, built by private funds through local fundraising and grants. This 11,000 square foot skate park gives kids the opportunity to ride skateboards and bikes in a safe and friendly environment. Next to the skate park sits Bob White baseball complex, where you will find the popular and heavily used indoor baseball and softball practice facility, built by parents whose ball players are now adults.

Next stop is the Pendleton Family Aquatic Center. This first-class water park features three pools, two giant water slides, tot toys, a large hot tub, concessions and shelter rentals. The professional staff run by the city makes the water park fun and safe for all ages. When the water park closes after summer, the city of Pendleton is busy putting together the ice skating rink at Roy Raley Park for winter fun.

The grass infield at the Pendleton Round-Up grounds is home of Whiz Kids Wiffle Ball during the months of May and June.  This organization started 26 years ago by local community members to give 5 and 6 year olds an opportunity to stay active during the summer months and introduce them to the sport of baseball. Over 190 kids flock to the RoundUp grounds each year to participate in Whiz Kids Wiffle Ball.

Lets walk along the river parkway down to Main Street where you will find the not-for-profit Childrens Museum of Eastern Oregon. As the only childrens museum in all of Eastern Oregon, CMEO has a positive impact on children through their educational activities, events and exhibits. You will find weekly activities like simple science, snuggly story time, craft class, family game night, spring rocket class and many other fun events. The Childrens Museum also offers Terrifically Free Tuesdays the first and third Tuesday of every month.

At the opposite end of Main Street is the popular Pendleton Center for the Arts. Art Rocks Teens was developed in 2005 and continues today as a program just for teens. They offer a wide range of interesting and fun classes, including photography, oil painting, ceramics, jewelry making, film making, leather braiding and much more. Every six weeks or so, a new slate of free classes for teens are offered, and its the place to be in the summer as young people from throughout the area travel to Pendleton for its Rock and Roll Camp. Along with teen classes, the Arts Center focuses on activities for 2 to 12 year olds with a variety of classes from art to clay and music too.

The final stop on the tour is the Pendleton Parks and Recreation Department. Have you picked up your copy of the spring/summer 2012 parks and recreation activities guide? You will find 39 pages full of well-planned activities geared towards kids of all ages. Be prepared for a fun-filled summer with events such as aquatic movie night, tot time, summer parks adventure camp, Ptown Throw Down Skate & Bike Competition, movies in the park and tunes under the trees. Other activities include cupcake wars, golf lessons, young Einstein science camp, tiny tot Olympics and the soap box derby just to list a few.

The city of Pendleton Parks and Recreation Department and Commission have done an outstanding job giving kids the opportunity to participate in a variety of fun activities throughout the year.

The above information is just a small sample of what our great city is doing for kids and surely part of the reason that Bloomberg Businessweek named Pendleton the Best Place to Raise Kids in Oregon. Pendleton stands ready to offer its youth a variety of places and activities where they can unwind by doing what they do best being kids.

Andy McAnally is a business owner in Pendleton.