Change is good

Last night, I went to a Riverfest planning meeting. There will be some changes this year and I am so excited about them! Because the Susquehanna was named River of the Year, there are sojourns planned right around the same time and tentative plans to get kids on the river, who normally wouldn't have the opportunity. The last two years at Riverfest, a dragon boat has been made available to kids who help volunteer as a way to satisfy community service requirements (and last year a judge paddled with them!) and the response was positive. The kids loved it!

The NPS has expressed an interest in being involved, because of the 100th birthday of the national park system.

There are other changes that are positive and exciting, but I will save that for a later post, as we get closer to the weekend June 24, 25 & 26.


Tidbit I learned last night: The national park idea has been credited to the artist George Catlin. In 1832 he traveled the northern Great Plains of the United States, where he became concerned about the destruction of the Indian civilization, wildlife, and wilderness as eastern settlements spread westward. He wrote, “by some great protecting policy of government... in a magnificent park... a nation’s park, containing man and beast, in all the wild[ness] and freshness of their nature’s beauty!” from here.
George Catlin was a Wilkes-Barre native and painter of Native Americans.  How cool is that?