Where it all began …

Lake Los Angeles – On Thursday, June 26, 2025, Stephen Sorensen Community Regional Park (SSOR) will celebrate the Re-opening of the Lake Los Angeles Community Gymnasium Basketball Court and the refurbishing of the wood floor compliments of the Los Angeles Clippers Foundation (LACF) basketball organization.

Where it all began: On Thursday, November 17, 2023, the LA County Department of Parks and Recreation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Jesse Owens Park to celebrate the opening of newly renovated Clippers Community Courts throughout Los Angeles. It was the latest victory in the team’s collaboration with the Parks and Recreation to refurbish both indoor and outdoor basketball courts, which started five years ago when the Clippers Foundation donated millions to the LA Parks Foundation for this impressive long-term project dollars to redo all of the basketball courts at LA County parks (indoor and outdoor) with 117 in Los Angeles County.

The Clippers-funded scope of work here included a repair and resurfacing of the existing full-court basketball court inside the Community Building. LACF donated $5.3 million to the LA County Parks Foundation, which funds the project and will refurbish and improve all 117 basketball courts operated by the Department of Parks and Recreation, according to LA County Park Foundation.

Aside from basketball, the county parks host everything from volleyball tournaments, dance competitions, and community events. These renovations are helping facilitate more than just sports-related activities, which helps build a level of belonging and closeness to neighborhoods. SSOR is more than a park. It is central to everyone living in the community. It is the community’s civic center. It is a safe place for everyone to come together and recreate. It has served as a theater for movies and music events.

The importance of the gymnasium in Lake Los Angeles can never be overstated. In addition to open basketball, Lake Los Angeles’ court has seen volleyball, movie nights, holiday dinners, cheerleading practice and competitions, inter-park basketball tournaments, haunted house and Halloween parties, Santa’s Village, back-to-school drives, karate, Zumba, boxing and SBCC’s Culture Day “Around the World”. There is more, too many more to list. Vendors and partners have brought so many events to the gymnasium, both indoor and outdoor.

The floor is finished, still drying of the wax and then it can open again for everyone’s enjoyment.

To thank the Clippers for restoring the gymnasiums, you can participate in park events or donate to the LA County Department of Parks and Recreation, which partnered with the Clippers for the renovation. You can also talk it up on social media as it is indeed worthy of positive conversation.