I recently had the pleasure of taking my youngest daughter to Brooklyn to celebrate the National Park Foundation and National Park Service, In partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Park and One World Trade Center for the celebration, for the first time ever, New Yorkers worked together on a giant digital circuit board to control the color of the lights of One World Trade Center’s spire. The celebration featured music by Ramblin’ Dan, which kept my little one grooving all afternoon.
Much like Central Park, which is our backyard every weekend, Brooklyn Bridge Park is one of the great Parks with views that are astounding. The skyline is picturesque, and the number of fun activities that this city has to offer is endless. Having the opportunity to unplug with my little one and participate in a celebration of the Parks we love and take full advantage of with a few local bloggers was an amazing afternoon.
Our day began with an ice cream social at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory with national park themed flavors. Followed by carnival-style sand art necklace making, and trivia questions and prizes. The highlight that really had us all moving our feet was the musical performance by the kid-friendly band, Ramblin’ Dan.
National parks are kept in the beautiful condition they’re in thanks to the hard work of the National Park Foundation and their Park Rangers. I would encourage anyone who hasn’t gone camping in a national park over a weekend to go out and experience it! If you’re new to camping then you can always look online for more details about the park you’re going to be staying at. For example, campingfunzone.com goes over all the stuff you can do in the Big Bend National Park if you’re based in Texas. I’m new to all this too but I’m looking for my next trip where I can stay in a park for longer, over a weekend!
National Park Foundation and Find Your Park partners also hosted interactive sessions such as American Express and its nonprofit partner Games for Change hosted an interactive game experience showcasing the new iOS game, Save the Park. Save the Park allows you to play as a park volunteer and experience the conservation activities that support the national parks. We even got to meet some Park Rangers and thank them for their hard work.
Subaru of America was onsite to raise awareness of its National Park ZeroLandfill Initiative, an effort to significantly reduce waste going into landfills from all national parks while educating attendees on how they can help keep the parks remain beautiful for another 100 years. To further divert waste from landfills, Subaru will also be collecting soft drink and water bottle caps that will be recycled into a park bench and donated to an organization or park in need. There are so many things that you can do with recycled materials at the moment. People seem to be speaking more and more about being able to recycle plastic into objects, including benches. We’d been told that recycled plastic benches are manufactured with high-quality sustainable materials that are meant to keep the benches looking better for longer. It’s a great idea and I can’t wait to see what this bench will look like when it’s finished.
The most important message from the day is to remember as we celebrate the 100th Anniversary, we must keep our parks beautiful and clean for our children’s children and their children. Our parks are a treasure and when you breeze in and out for a game of catch or a bike ride, you can forget the beauty behind them and the dedication it takes to keep them running and clean. We can always do more. So many people clearly love our parks as they are always busy with families and cyclists. Due to this, it’s important that everyone is respectful of each other. Sometimes, those on a bike ride might experience something that results in them having an accident at one of these parks, this has happened before and a bike accident lawyer had to be called to help the victims. As this city is so busy, it’s important that we all do our part to keep each other safe.
This cutie has the celebration spirit today for @NatlParkService @GoParks So much to do and see! #FindYourPark #Ad pic.twitter.com/lr1WPTxbyv
— The MOMS (@themoms) August 22, 2016
Disclosure: This post is sponsored, all opinions expressed are my own.