September 10, 2025  | Makenzie Kellar

Carbon Valley Parks & Recreation (CVPR) is a large district with plenty to show for it. Serving the communities of Frederick, Firestone, and Dacono, their team welcomed approximately 182,709 visitors to their facilities in 2023. Of course, their large visitation numbers are no surprise considering the vast array of activities they offer. Swimming lessons, group fitness classes, adult team sports, gymnastics classes, as well as programs for youth and seniors alike make Carbon Valley Parks & Recreation District a place with something to offer for everyone.

However, it isn’t the size of the district or the variety of programs that make them truly stand out from the rest; it’s their dedication to the safety of guests and staff alike. 

“Carbon Valley strives to create an environment that encourages employees to make decisions to keep themselves safe and build a strong safety culture,” stated Kyle Brown, Sr. Risk Control Consultant with the CSD Pool. “I am honored to have worked with them and feel we have a relationship where we are constantly learning from each other.”

So what makes a district like Carbon Valley Parks & Recreation stand above the rest? According to Guest Services Supervisor Whitney Wilmes, their robust safety committee certainly helps.

“The committee is pretty diverse,” she said, referring to how the committee includes members involved with overseeing the senior center, the rec center, youth programming, and the gymnastics program. As she explained, having staff from every department participate ensures that safety standards set by the committee are consistent across all areas of operation.

Communication between employees and the safety committee isn’t just a one-way street either. If an employee has an idea for something that would make the district a safer place, they can submit a Safety Fund Request to the committee to make it happen.

“We get some pretty good requests for safety funds,” said Whitney. “It also shows that people have that on their mind.”

The safety committee isn’t Carbon Valley Parks & Recreation’s only asset. Scott Hickman, the Recreation Manager for the district, stated that the understanding they receive from administration is a major factor contributing to their success.

“We’re supported both financially and I think administratively—very supported on making things safe,” Scott commented, citing their administration’s repeated decisions to value safety above profits. When, inevitably, equipment breaks or the district must close off an area, that decision is a “no-brainer.”

“We don’t get feedback from our administrative folks or finance folks about ‘you just lost X amount of dollars,’” Scott continued. “We have a lot of support from admin, bureaucracy, and our policies. They do support our policies that we come up with for safety, and people live by it.”

Internal policies and practices aside, the district has also taken advantage of several free tools provided by the CSD Pool in order to continuously improve. The Safety and Loss Prevention Grant Program, which provides reimbursement for safety-related purchases, has been used several times to help supplement employee requests to their safety committee. And, while they already have an in-house training program dedicated to CPR and First Aid, the Vector Solutions Training Platform has helped fill in any gaps.

“We have access to that for our staff to get just whatever random trainings that we need,” mentioned Scott. “Anything from safe work practices to ergonomics to driver safety to bloodborne pathogens.”

With a 25-year-old building as their main facility, Carbon Valley Parks & Recreation District has also scheduled several safety consultant walkthroughs through the CSD Pool. Scott claimed that they already had plans for more scheduled visits in the future to make sure that there was always a chance for a “fresh set of eyes” to see the building and make sure everything was in good shape.

Despite their robust safety measures and frequent communication with the CSD Pool over how they can improve, being nominated for the Safest District of the Year Award still caught the Carbon Valley Parks & Recreation team by surprise.

“In our industry, it’s a lot of self-nomination,” Scott clarified, using previous recognition they had received from the Colorado Parks and Recreation Association for their in-house CPR/First Aid trainings as an example. “Usually, you get self-nominated […] This is kind of out of the blue, so I think that made it a little bit more special.”

Both Scott and Whitney agreed that it wasn’t their robust safety committee, their administration, or outside assistance that made their district worth the recognition; it was their fantastic team.

“Our district is completely different—both employee-wise and operationally—than it was five years ago” Scott explained. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the district was forced to rebuild its team essentially from the ground up. While this was a difficult transition, it also made for an excellent opportunity to create a more qualified and dedicated staff than ever before.

“We really took a lot of pride in hiring the right people,” Scott continued. “We really put an effort into that: getting the right people in the right places. And that’s been supported through administration too, just making our staff a little more qualified than they have been in the past.”

Whitney was also quick to sing the praises of their staff, especially regarding non-safety committee members being more than willing to do their part.

“The safety committee doesn’t have to get out there and remind different teams if they’re not doing something properly,” she said. “Everyone runs their own safety trainings and things. We’re not having to remind people to do that; everyone kind of takes it on themselves.”

Scott summed it up by saying that the integrity and proactive approach to safety their team displayed was something he was incredibly proud of.

“The big takeaway is how much our staff as a whole participates,” he said. “Everybody as a team is really into making this place and their programs as safe as possible.”

It is for this reason that the CSD Pool is honored to recognize Carbon Valley Parks & Recreation as the 2025 Safest District of the Year.