National Conference at CU promotes Playing Every Day

ClemsonUniversity is set to host the US Play Coalition’s Conference on the Value of Play Feb. 17-20 at the MadrenConferenceCenter.  More than 200 experts in the fields of medicine, parks and recreation, health science, education and more will address the benefits of play during lectures and panel discussions. The conference theme is “The Value of Play: Taking Action.” Presenters will share research that shows play can help reduce one of America’s primary health issues: obesity. Fran Mainella, the 16th director of the National Park Service and a visiting scholar in Clemson University’s department of parks, recreation and tourism management, co-chairs the US Play Coalition. She said children today play much less than their counterparts 20 years ago. Mainella said the decline is linked to reports of increased obesity, attention deficit disorder, depression and diabetes in children and adults.