Nicholas Kaplanis Director of Recreation
Address:	7 East Hayestown Road Danbury, CT 06811
Telephone:	203-797-4632
FAX:	203-797-4634

About Us:

The Parks and Recreation Department for the City of Danbury offers extensive programming opportunities for residents young and the young at heart, to participate in recreational activities or enjoy our leisure facilities. Our park maintainers work diligently every day to ensure every facility is manicured and has been carefully prepared to ensure optimum use of that playing surface, whether it is for a game or practice session. Parks staff also maintains 101 other sites at public places and schools throughout the city, planting flowers, pruning shrubs, trimming trees and mowing and trimming grass. 

We continue to invest our resources rebuilding infield surfaces and making improvements with drainage at many of our facilities.

The City of Danbury has 1,607 acres designated for park and recreational use distributed as follows: 1,054 acres of special use parks, 117 acres of natural resource areas and 381 acres of City parks. The Parks & Recreation Department oversees the use of 15 schools for playgrounds/ball fields, accounting for 55 acres. In addition, there are a number of hiking trials available for use year round which include Bear Mountain Reserve, Tarrywile Park, Old Quarry Nature Center, Still River Greenway and the newly acquired Farrington property on the west side on Mill Plain Rd.

The Parks and Recreation Department sponsors summer programs each year, including Red Cross swimming lessons, which encompasses an Adaptive Swim Program for children with special needs, a four-week Summer Playground Program for elementary school students and a four-week Safe Summer Program for middle school students. These programs have given an opportunity to over 650 children in our community to participate in summer fun and learning while visiting many of Danbury’s resources such as Old Quarry Nature Center, The Danbury Historical Museum, Candlewood and Kenosia Lakes and our spray parks. 

The Recreation Department administers 13 plots at the Community Garden on Miry Brook Rd and the renting of Hatter’s Park Community Hall and Pavilion.

Our Accomplishments:

This will be our third year of Summer Movie Nights at Candlewood Town Park, showing four free movies during the month of July. These movies are made possible through the generous donations of local businesses and residents. Improvements were made to several elementary school infields making them more suitable for baseball practice and games. The Recreation Department and Gaylord Hospital hosted a fishing tournament for Wounded Warriors at Candlewood Lake we also worked in conjunction with the CT DEP to sponsor a Hunter Safety Course. Danbury Youth Baseball has introduced Buddy Ball, a baseball program for children with special needs. The Department continues to explore new opportunities to enhance program offerings for pre-school age children. We will also focus our attention to integrating our diverse youth population in public and private programs. We are actively pursuing a suitable location to build a dog park within the City limits. Look for outdoor ice skating this winter at one of our parks. Feel free to check the City of Danbury web site for updates on all ongoing activities in the department. www.danbury-ct.gov

Each year the Recreation Department contributes financial support to the many non-profit organizations that sponsor a variety of athletic activities offered to all the children in Danbury.

This includes: PAL Wrestling, Boys and Girls Basketball, Girls Softball, Field Hockey and Swimming, Danbury Youth Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth Baseball, Danbury Youth Soccer/Topps, DAYO Trojans Pop Warner Football/Cheerleading, T-Ball, Flag Football, Middle School Basketball and Track and Field, Boys and Girls Lacrosse, HCYS Vikings AYF Football/Cheerleading and Elementary School Basketball. In addition, grant money is given to the Danbury Westerners Collegiate Baseball Team.