Father’s Day at Pioneers Park

In celebration of Father’s Day, volunteers at pioneers park held their annual Frogs and Floats event.

This Pioneers Park Nature Center event brings dads, kids and families together to play around in the shallow water with nets and buckets to see what amphibians and bugs they can catch.

“They just come and be kids, just enjoy nature, splash around in the water, collect insects, collect frogs, tadpoles, just get dirty,” Master Naturalist and volunteer, Bill Smith said. 

Many found tadpoles, bullfrogs, dragonflies naiads and had some wetland exploration. The kids trudged around in the water, got to learn about wetland animals and just had some adventurous fun outside. 

One of the fathers agrees that the immersion in nature is a great exercise between parent and child and recommends it as a common practice to help bond better. 

“You shouldn’t just do this once a year, it is really easy to get distracted. You get bogged down, everybody works, everybody has jobs and everything else that we’re doing and it’s easy to lose track of what’s really important. And days like today kind of help remind you of that,” participating father, Caleb Swanson said.

At the end of all the fun, families cooled down with some root beer floats.

The pioneers park nature center says they do this every father’s day. Many families are returners to the event and look forward to it every year.