The weather over the weekend wasn’t exactly optimal for spending a lot of time outdoors, but that didn’t stop Levi Kammes and his wife and niece from spending some time outside Saturday at the Forest Preserve District of Kane County’s Polar-Palooza in St. Charles.
“I know it’s cold, but we can do this,” said Levi Kammes of St. Charles.
For the second year, the Forest Preserve District offered Polar-Palooza, a three-hour indoor and outdoor fest that included everything from crafts, games and interactive exhibits to outdoor activities which included making a pine cone bird feeder and participating in an “Animal Olympics” where kids were asked to test their skills while engaged in animal-like movements.
The event took place from noon until 3 p.m. at Creek Bend Nature Center at 37W700 Dean St. in St. Charles.
“It was a lot warmer last year, but we’re hoping for a good turnout as we have a lot of indoor activities,” said Erica Lemon, a naturalist at Creek Bend Nature Center, before the event. “We’ve got warming stations outside this year to go with the outdoor activities which is something we didn’t offer last year. We’re hoping that it brings people out.”
Amber Ross, also a naturalist at the center, created the event a year ago and said “we worked to make things easier in terms of getting around and managing the traffic flow this year.”
Seven indoor stations were available as well as four outdoor stations that included the Animal Olympics as well as a game known as “Migration Headache” which Lemon said involved someone “pretending to be a bird and having to get through all the obstacles birds have to get through as they migrate.”
Lemon said the fest is a “way to get families out together but at the same time we are educating through these games. We’re educating about nature, as well as different animals and habitats and ecosystems and things like that. We’re getting that education through games, so there’s an educational component.”
Temperatures this year hovered around 15 degrees – roughly half what they were a year ago, Nature Center staff said – but Rebecca Kammes insisted Saturday’s program made it worth dealing with the cold.
“It’s great. I mean, it has a lot of different activities and the refreshments and all that and, of course, the hot chocolate and the cookies is what brought her out,” she said while looking at her niece Olivia, who is 3 years old. “Even though it’s cold, it’s good to get outside, it’s something to do in the winter. We know there is an educational component to this and that’s good too.”
Tiffany Beck of Aurora brought her son Cooper, 8, and said a friend who lives in St. Charles told her about the program.
“We’re ready to go outside and try some of the things there,” Beck said. “We’re going to take a look out there before it gets too cold, but we’re prepared.”
Patrick Chess of Geneva said he came a year ago and that his daughter Laurel, 6, “had a good time and really enjoyed playing the games.”
“She always enjoys the opportunity to kind of get outside and do some of the hiking around in nature in the winter, which is something that we tend not to do on a normal weekend,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
