Connect Hot Topics

August 20, 2020, Department, by National Recreation and Park Association

Hot Topics 410

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NRPA Connect is an online network with 65,000 professionals to answer your questions, share your challenges and discuss trending topics in the field. Check out what is being discussed this month:

Special Event Ideas with Physical Distancing in Mind — An NRPA Member has asked the community to share ideas on special events during the COVID-19 pandemic to help keep their community engaged and safe.

NRPA members offered the following suggestions:

  • We are starting our outdoor movies with a limited capacity. We will be moving it to our youth ballfield [to] help us manage numbers, so we don’t get a huge crowd. While inside the ballfield, we will have family pods set up (chalk or cones) to create an area that can seat around six people comfortably. Each “pod” will be at minimum [of] 10 feet from the next pod. Families are encouraged to wear face masks while they are coming into the movie and exiting. They are able to take off their face masks once they sit down at their pod.

  • Scavenger Hunt — Each week, we hide a “golden ticket” at one of our 18 parks and take an up-close picture of the ticket to give as a clue. Families who find it need to take a picture of the ticket at the park and upload it to the post. Once confirmed, they stop by our office to pick up the prize.

  • Chalk the Lot — Families have all weekend to complete a parking space with chalk drawings. We alternated every other spot in a row to help encourage social distancing. Once families completed, we had them send in a picture of the drawing and social media followers voted.

  • We are offering two events coming up in September and October. One is our “Fall Frolic, ” where we set up learning/craft/activity stations along one of our nature trails (about 2.5 miles) and allow families to social distance as they go from station to station. We also include a nature scavenger hunt for the kids and when they return to the trailhead, they receive a treat/prize. The other one is a scarecrow decorating contest. Families pay $15 to receive a scarecrow frame (looks like a cross made out of 1X4s). Then, they can decorate their scarecrow and display. The top three get prizes.

Log in to NRPA Connect today to share ideas or chime into the discussion!