Our Daily Show Interview! National Great River's Museum: Rec Fest is This Saturday
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ALTON - Community members of all ages can come out for REC Fest to learn more about outdoor activities, safety and fun this summer.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, 2025, the National Great Rivers Museum will host REC Fest to promote Recreation, Exploration and Conservation. Attendees can explore informational booths, take a tour of the Melvin Price Lock and Dam, enjoy animal shows, explore police and fire vehicles, win prizes and more.
“It just got legs and became our largest event of the year,” joked Allison Kennington with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rivers Project. “The idea is to just kick off the warmer season, the recreation season, and teach people the different ways we can recreate along the river and in the Riverbend area and how to do it safely.”
The National Great Rivers Museum (NGRM) will host over 30 partners on May 17. Kids are invited to visit each informational booth and receive stamps on their “passport.” If you collect at least ten stamps, you will receive a goodie bag. The first 200 kids to turn in their passports will also receive tickets to either an Alton River Dragons baseball game or a Grizzlies baseball game.
NGRM and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are also involved in the Every Kid Outdoors initiative. As part of this program, every fourth grade student who completes a passport will receive an America the Beautiful pass, which gives the student and their family free entry to national parks. This pass is an $80 value.
Animalogy will present live animal shows at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. At 12 p.m., the museum’s youngest visitors can enjoy a mascot parade featuring Fredbird from the St. Louis Cardinals, Eddie the Cougar from SIUE, Blazer the Newfie from Lewis and Clark Community College, Bobber the Water Safety Dog, and more.
Attendees on Saturday can also climb a rock wall with Upper Limits Rock Gym & Pro Shop, shoot archery with St. Charles County Parks, enjoy food from Dam-It Joe’s and Kona Ice, check out a planetarium show with The Nature Institute, get their faces painted, and explore police and fire department vehicles through a Touch-a-Truck.
Kennington promises that the event will be a lot of fun, but she emphasized that its ultimate goal is to promote safety when recreating. There will be plenty of safety tips as well as activities and fun for families to enjoy.
“We do a lot of water safety initiatives year-round, but we go really heavy with this event,” she added. “Those things are just important. If you’ve been exposed to it, maybe you’re thinking about it and taking a second thought of, ‘How am I going to be safe when I do this?’...We want to make sure everybody knows how to be outside safely.”
For more information about the free family-friendly REC Fest, visit the official Facebook event page.
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