ITHACA, N.Y. — Ithaca Children’s Garden, Discover Cayuga Lake, Sciencenter, and Paddle-n-More announce “Explore the Waterfront,” a series of activities intended to help families and children be outside and utilize local resources.
The collaboration, which kicks off today, will be held four times a week for the next four weeks, Wednesday to Saturday, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. If the financial support materializes and the events are well attended, the partners are considering extending the program through the summer, states the press release.
“Ever since starting my role with the Ithaca Children’s Garden in 2011, I’ve been dreaming about teaming up on a cultural waterfront trail with the other wonderful waterfront institutions that make our waterfront so unique,” said Erin Marteal, Executive Director of the Ithaca Children’s Garden. “It feels great to finally kick that off – a silver lining of this weird time that is with no camp we have to bandwidth to stretch outside our normal operations.”
Ithaca Children’s Garden will be hosting the events for each Wednesday, starting July 22. Their events will range from quests and scavenger hunts to construction bug hotels and other activities that can be taken home.
Thursday mornings will be hosted by Discover Cayuga Lake, and families will be taken on cruises focusing on different hands on learning themes.
Paddle-n-More will be offering a 2-hour-long guided kayak trip in Stewart Park, which will include a lesson on kayaking and exploring different waterways of Cayuga Lake.
“I am so excited to partner with such a wonderful group of individuals who want to give back to their community,” said Jennifer Wells, owner of Paddle-n-More. “It has been a long-time goal to provide paddle-sports programming to area youth and children to gain exposure to our waterways through kayaking.”
Sciencenter will host Saturdays with a hands-on exploration along Cascadilla Creek, in which families will be able to explore steam life, and learn about Sciencenter’s resources.
“With our reopening, the Sciencenter is excited to welcome families back, we want to celebrate by hosting events for the community,” says Jen Schwade, Vice President of Education for the Sciencenter.
Joining in the collaboration, TCAT is beginning to offer a new route to local parks starting today. You can find more information about Route 22 here.
“Many families have been struggling, not only with the unmet childcare needs and lost jobs in some cases, but also a lcak of safe activities to provide some structure and normalcy to the week,” added Marteal.
Although all programs are free, registration is required and the event organizers strongly suggest early registration. You can find more information and register here.
“It’s incredible to see this dream becoming a reality and what a great team to work with,” notes Bill Foster, Executive Director of Discover Cayuga Lake.
Photo by Kathy Eliason