Event links family fun, outdoors

By D.a. Wilkinson

ST. CLAIR — A combination of learning about the great outdoors, family time and 150 pounds of hot dogs will come together this weekend.

The event, “Explore the Outdoors with Your Family Because Time Together Counts,” will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Beaver Creek State Park.

“Times are tough, but everything is free,” Carol F. Bretz, executive director of the Community Action Agency, told the Columbiana County commissioners Wednesday.

Donors have been great, she said, not only with the hot dogs, which will be free, but donations of two bicycles that will be given away in a drawing and lots of donated items that will serve as door prizes.

Tom Butch, president of the Columbiana County Federation of Conservation Clubs, wants to get youths into the outdoors.

“Part of it is reconnecting with nature,” he said.

There will be nature walks, canoeing, fish demonstrations and exhibits and environmental and mushroom displays.

There were about 250 people at the event last year, and he said he “hopes to increase that considerably.”

There also will be music, clog-dancing, demonstrations of emergency vehicles and recycling.

Another part of the program is geared toward the fact that August is Child Support Awareness Month.

The Columbiana County Child Support Enforcement Agency, a division of the county’s Job and Family Services, took in $20 million in support. It will have workers at the event.

The agency sent notices to 340 parents urging them to attend the free activities at the park with their children.

CSEA workers will also be talking to groups of fathers about support, including prisoners in the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton. People who have lost jobs or are incarcerated can ask for support reductions until they can obtain employment.

wilkinson@vindy.com