Mr. Bud Brown

Recreation New Glasgow Director Bud Brown says the playground is another leading example in keeping with the safety standards of the South-end Playground in that its safety surface is made of rubber chips.The rubber chips are about the size of pea gravel and are spread under the play equipment for safety purposes." This is another first for New Glasgow," continues the Town's recreation director." The safety base for playgrounds requires a safety surface that will allow a child to fall five feet (fall zone) without the risk of a serious head injury," explains Mr. Brown.
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New Glasgow Recreation Director Bud Brown concludes, "Studies show that Recreation is the single most important force to develop a cohesive and healthy relationship between parents and their children.

Bud Brown climbs the stairs: the co-ordinator of the Active Kids, Healthy Kids program in Pictou County says it's simple, daily activities like this, that kids are missing out on.

In Bud Brown's eyes, the situation is simple: inactivity is killing us, and we have to do something about it.

But as the new co-ordinator of the Active Kids, Healthy Kids program in Pictou County, Brown has a more complicated question to deal with - how can we make kids more active?

"How do we get someone who's not physically active aware that they are putting themselves in great danger?"he said.

He's got some shocking statistics on hand.The number of obese boys has doubled in the last 15 years and now almost 39 per cent of young boys are considered obese.
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Brown, recently retired from a long-held post as the recreation director for the Town of New Glasgow, took on the position with Active Kids, Healthy Kids because he said he strongly believes something needs to be done to stop the problem.

He said inactivity is costing the health care system billions of dollars each year.
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By the middle of May, Brown says two after-school programs will be underway in the county.But these programs will focus on reminding kids how to play in an unstructured way.He plans to teach kids very simple games that can be played anywhere, with minimal to no equipment.One of the most important parts of the games is they have extremely simple rules."What I think we need to do is teach kids how to play without a lot of structured or complicated games."When you start getting into rules and regulations, kids get turned off," he said.

It seems almost against human nature to teach children how to "play", but Brown said it's something that needs to be done, simply because some kids have never done it before.

The programs would be free and would be held in school facilities, so kids don't have to worry about money, safety or transportation - just some of the many things that are keeping kids from being active."By having programs in school, you've eliminated half the barriers."

Even outside of school programs and structured activities, Brown says there are simple changes people can make to their lives that make them healthier in the long run - like taking the stairs.

"In order for us to make society more active, we have to change the way we think about our daily activities," he said.