Blue Valley Recreation Commission and the Blue Valley School District’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) were honored earlier this year by the Kansas Recreation and Park Association (KRPA) for the Distinguished Public Service Award. The award recognizes an organization which has provided outstanding service to any recreation, park and conservation initiatives at the local or state level.
Under the guidance of Tech Solutions instructor Jill Riffer, CAPS students Garrett Wahlstedt, Chandler Gianni, Easton Anderlik, and Royal Wang developed a Field Finder mobile app to aid visitors of the Blue Valley Recreation Sports Complex on 137th Street.
With numerous tournaments attracting hundreds out-of-town teams, the app will allow the user to locate specific fields along with the closest parking and entrances to each field and lot. Those unfamiliar with the 24-field complex will be able to find the nearest restrooms to their field (a must when attending sporting events with kids), the nearest concession stand, and locations of playgrounds as well.
In addition to creating all the code from scratch, the students took photos for the app, conceived the graphics, and integrated directions with Google Maps to work on both Android and Apple devices.
Field Finder will be crucial in managing traffic flow on busy tournament days. Many visitors don’t realize there is more than one entrance into the parking lots and traffic often gets congested. Thousands of fans unfamiliar with the facility will be able to quickly find the location of their designated field and enter/exit the correct parking lot accordingly.