Forsyth Creek Week: Fun for the Whole Family

Sponsored by Forsyth Creek Week

Checking for crawfish, rooting for your entry in the rubber duck regatta, learning how to catch a fish. Forsyth Creek Week, returning April 2 – 10, offers all these family-friendly opportunities and more to celebrate and enjoy our local waterways.

What is Creek Week? It’s a week of fun, educational and hands-on activities for all ages and interests, organized by agencies and non-profits in Forsyth County that care about the health of our creeks and streams.

The concept is simple: People protect the things they care about, and Forsyth Creek Week is a way to get people to care about our creeks and streams by showing helping them connect the dots between healthy waterways and the recreational and aesthetic pleasure they provide — not to mention their importance as a source of life-sustaining fresh water.

For families, Forsyth Creek Week is an ideal way to start planting the seeds of environmental stewardship in young minds by getting them to associate creeks and streams with fun things to see and do. Details (including times and locations) for the following events can be found on Forsyth Creek Week’s web site HERE.

Creek Crawls are a great start. A knowledgeable guide leads participants down into a creek to learn more about the critters that live in a creek and what that tells you about its health. Creek Week offers two creek crawls, one on Sunday, April 3, at Historic Bethabara Park and another on Saturday, April 9, at Salem Creek near Washington Park.

The Creek Crawl at Salem Creek will be preceded by a Rubber Duck Regatta fund-raiser for the Gateway Nature Center. For a $5 donation you can purchase a rubber duck and enter to win prizes.

Another great activity is the Family Fishing Fun, a popular program the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is holding on Saturday, April 2. There will be family-friendly casting demonstrations and lessons — a terrific way to bond with the kids by teaching them a fun skill! Kids can then put their new casting skills to the test while playing Backyard Bass, a casting game for all ages (and which experience shows is dangerously addictive for adults). Also for kids, there will be face painting and crafts.

Also on Sunday, April 3, Forsyth Audubon members will lead bird walks along the Little Creek, Bethabara and Salem Creek greenways. Bring binoculars if you have them, but the leaders will have a couple of pairs of binoculars that can be used on the walk.

Families with home-schoolers can turn our Lunch & Learn sessions into field trips. Monday, April 4, features a tour of the Thomas Water Plant, where kids can see how the Utilities Division purifies river water before sending it to their household faucets. And on Wednesday, April 6, they can learn how the treated sewage that Utilities puts back in the Yadkin River is cleaner than the raw water they pull out for our water treatment plants.

And for parents of toddlers and pre-schoolers, all library locations in Forsyth County will present water-themed story times, activities and crafts for children of all ages during Creek Week.

And then there’s the Otter Animal Encounters at SciWorks, held on Tuesday, April 5, and Friday, April 8. Learn about their role of these playful animals in the ecosystem and watch them dive for treats during an enrichment exercise. Free with admission to SciWorks — and remember, every branch of the Forsyth County Public Library has a family pass to SciWorks that can be checked out.

Of course, there are many more things going on during Creek Week for teens and adults, too, such as the half-price Segway rides on the Salem Creek Trail, organized creekside bike rides and trivia nights at two local brew pubs.

Learn more about all these activities and everything else going on during Creek Week at Forsyth CreekWeek.org. And remember, unless otherwise noted, all Creek Week activities are free, thanks to Creek Week’s presenting sponsor, North State Environmental, and the other businesses and organizations that make Creek Week possible through their financial support.