Parks department hosts movie night at the Sportsplex

December 1, 2011

By ANGIE CARNATHAN
sdnreporter@yahoo.com

The Starkville Parks and Recreation Department is sponsoring a fun family night to kick the holiday season off featuring Christmas movies, free popcorn and the opportunity to have pictures with Santa taken.
The event begins this evening at 5:45 p.m. at the Sportsplex gymnasium with the showing of the original animated “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” An intermission will follow the first movie at 6:20 p.m., then the Jim Carrey feature version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” begins at 7 p.m.
“We are very excited about providing a movie night for families to enjoy in a casual atmosphere and at no cost, thanks to our sponsors,” Starkville Parks and Recreations Director Matthew Rye said. “We encourage families to come out and make this a family night out. Our staff is very committed and believe it is very important to provide social outlets for families to the community.”
Organizers encourage the community to bring lawn chairs, sleeping bags, blankets and pillows for comfortable while watching the movies. Although they are providing the popcorn, organizers do ask that each family brings its own drinks in either plastic bottles or cans.
“We want it to be a fun, old-time, casual movie night, kind of like at the drive-in a long time ago,” Parks and Recreation employee Lisa Cox said. “We wanted to do something fun for the families at Christmas.”
Cox said organizers were thankful to have great sponsors for the event, including Dan Moreland, C Spire, Syngetics, Aaron’s and Christy Mcgee. 
Santa will be available for pictures tonight from 5:30-9 p.m in meeting room No. 2, located upstairs from the gym. Santa will also visit the Sportsplex Monday and Tuesday from 6-8 p.m. both evenings in the activities room of the smaller building next door to the gym. Parents are encouraged to bring their own cameras to take pictures.
For more information about this free event, please contact Lisa Cox at 662-323-2294.