Sports center celebrates first anniversary — and Louisville Water partnership

“Louisville Water Company was one of the first companies to believe in our vision for the Sports & Learning Center,” said Sadiqa Reynolds, Louisville Urban League President and CEO.

Celebrating its one-year anniversary, the facility (officially named the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center) on the Urban League’s 24-acre campus “has had more of an impact in one year than anything else anyone has done or could have done in the west end of Louisville,” Reynolds added.

As part of the anniversary celebration, the facility has been hosting a series of track meets and events, including the American Track League’s recent Eastern Indoor Meet. This was the first pro televised event at the center. Fans got to see world records broken as Olympic medalists prepared for another spot on Team USA.

Fans and athletes at the center can stay hydrated at four water bottle filling stations featuring Louisville Water messages and educational programming that focuses on healthy hydration.


“We are not only bringing travelers into the city; we are showing off our water and the culture of our water company,” Reynolds said. “People visiting the facility love the artwork around the water fountains and the fact that they can fill and refill their own bottles. I know we have built the best facility in the United States, and we have the best water!”


Before the sports center opened, Louisville Water replaced outdated drinking water fountains with bottle filling stations in the Urban League’s downtown office. These water stations feature inspirational messages, including quotations from John Lewis and Martin Luther King, Jr.


“It takes heart to design the fountains Louisville Water Company designed in our building,” said Reynolds. “Those photos, those words send a message to our children and to us: We are worth it, and we always have been. The leadership at Louisville Water knows that.”


She added that “students coming into the facility understand that while the world may not be perfect, the one thing we can offer them is a state-of-the-art facility and clean and tasty drinking water for free! No one doing Civil Rights work takes access to clean drinking water for granted.”