P&R Annual Report 2019

Honoring theWomen that Made Greensboro Great

Parks and Recreation Planning and Project Development worked with a team of residents to choose 31 women to honor at the Ruth Wicker Tribute to Women, a frst-of-its- kind in North Carolina interactive exhibition dedicated to the contributions of women. It opened in January 2019 at the new Barber Park Event Center. This project has received statewide recognition. Since its opening, the space is quickly becoming the must have meeting and event space in the community. In February 2019, City staf along with one of the honorees, A. Jean Jackson, the City’s frst female athletics’ director, were interviewed by Frank Statsio on WUNC’s The

State of Things. In that show, honoree, Jean Jackson, talked about her contributions to Greensboro. “What I wanted to accomplish was to make sure that everything was equal across the board. So I tried to make sure that not only women — but women too —would have space, ofcials, and the same types of activities that everybody else did,” Jackson said. The tribute space and the new event center are now busy additions to Barber Park, hosting regular community events and meetings.