Mayor Dave Cieslewicz joined the Madison Community Foundation and the Wisconsin Youth Company at Elver Park today to preview a new family winter event and highlight winter recreation in Madison's parks.

"Madison's parks provide a wealth of opportunities for healthy, fun recreation for families year round," Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said. "I'm pleased to kick off the new winter festivals here at Elver Park."

Families and especially young people will have an entire week to learn a new winter sport or sharpen their skating or skiing skills. The new Winter Skills Games, sponsored by the Madison Community Foundation and Wisconsin Youth Company, will take place at Elver Park from February 9 - 12. The free festival's goal is to introduce Madison residents regardless of age or income to winter sports options at Elver Park. The festival will include snow carving, ice-skating, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and sledding.

The Winter Skills Festival leads into the Madison Winter Festival, February 13 - 15. The Capitol Square is transformed into a winter wonderland with ice and snow sculptures, tubing hill and snowboard rail jam, World-class cross country ski racing, and snowshoeing venues during this weekend-long event. This activity-filled event has family oriented activities, special events at the museums, public open skiing and more. This year, there will again be an attempt to break the World Record at the US100 meter sprint event.

"Madison Community Foundation funded the Wisconsin Youth Company to provide kids with safe, supervised outdoor winter activities after school," said Tom Lindfield, Vice President of the Madison Community Foundation. "These programs strengthen Elver Park as a family winter destination and create opportunities for youth leadership and community building. This also created an impetus for WYC to provide middle school activities in the park year-round. Everyone wins."

Over recent years, remarkable energy has been brought to winter activities in our community's parks. Further strides have been made to ensure that these opportunities are for families and children to play outside together. The mayor thanked the Madison Community Foundation, Madison Nordic Ski Club and the Wisconsin Youth Company for their support, financial resources and hard work to continue improving Madison's parks.