URING MID-WINTER RECESS the
Intrepid Sea, Space and
Airmuseum hosted a
weeklong event called “Kids Week”. Kids week is a family-oriented event focused on entertaining, educating, and inspiring not only the children but their parents as well with a host of interactive displays and hands on activities.
The theme for Kids Week this year was “science is everywhere”. Some of the guests and features included NASA, NOAA, Army corps of engineers, exotic animals from various zoos, a pop-up planetarium, wildlife conservation society, and of course the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. Auxiliarist from six flotillas throughout First District Southern Region put together an interactive display to promote three major initiatives to the public: marine safety & environmental protection, recreational boating safety, and Coast Guard recruiting.
This multi-day event gave the members of our Public Affairs team a chance to engage guests and educate families on the dangers of dumping trash and the hazards it poses to the environment to the ecosystem and to the living organisms. They also had a chance to learn about boating safety and what size personal flotation device to wear. Many children had the opportunity to participate in some of our hands-on activities such as try on a PFD and get a signed Panda certificate, learn marlinspike seamanship.
Any child who participated had the chance to win a Coast Guard coloring book and an special badge to become an honorary junior coast guard badge. These incentives were a huge hit, and the word spread to stop by our booth, become an honorary “COASTIES”, and get your picture taken with uniformed members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
The event had a planned twenty-five thousand guests scheduled to attend and they exceeded that by an additional ten thousand. The Intrepid Staff indicated that our display saw a quarter of that total stop by our booth.
Bravo Zulu all the members who participated this year and thank you for making this a fun event for me as well.
at the Intrepid
David Mooney 05-04
D
Photos by Bert Ongkeo, Juan Guzman and Zach Perkins
Opposite, Bill Jefferson 05-04 listens to a young visitor about life jackets.