While January is a month to recover from the holidays, parks and recreation are back to full steam with a bounty of activities for the kids in Harrison and surrounding counties. The space Enrichment Program, as well as sports activities, will keep the staff busy in the next coming weeks.
“Space has always had a special interest with me and we have been able to find some really neat activities for the kids to participate in with our Space Enrichment,” related Director Mike Book. “The mysteries beyond our skies are answered on a daily basis through telescopes and probes and we are able to take that information and pass it down to students that participate in the program.”
Two of our key attractions are the Rocket Building and Star-lab enrichments. With the help of NASA IV & V, we have been able to teach kids about the constellations through the Star-lab. NASA lends out the portable air-filled attraction to schools throughout the state and we are fortunate to have it in our hands for the month. Set up takes roughly 20 minutes and the setting gives the appearance of a clear evening sky.’
“We are lucky to have this opportunity to have the Star-lab in our hands and the kids who participate are amazed about it,” said Book. “The unit itself covers about 30-feet in diameter rand roughly 20-25 kids can sit in the air-filled dome and we have a light unit in the center of the room and the star-sleeve covers the light to give the skyline effect.”
With rockets, children will be able to learn about how a rocket operates and then create their own paper rocket and later launch it to see how it travels. In all, around 900 kids from 8 different schools will take place in the space enrichment program this year.
The Knights of Columbus, in cooperation with the parks and recreation, will host the local qualifier of the annual foul shooting competition on Saturday, January 16th with registration starting at 9:30 am and competition starting at 10:00. The event will be held at Notre Dame high school and the event is free of charge.
“We have helped out with this competition for years and we have had some great turnouts and we expect a good field again this year,” said Book. “The event is open to all kids between the ages of 9 to 14 years old and of course the event is free to all those who wish to participate.”
For more information on any of the activities we have coming up, please feel free to contact the HCPR at 304-423-7800.
