Sun, Fun, and Fireworks

~ Lesliee Parker, Education Coordinator

This past Thursday, July 4^th the U.S. of A celebrated its 243^rd birthday and here in Imperial Valley we went all out with Freedom Fest 2019 hosted at Imperial Valley College. Your Imperial Valley Desert Museum team and a handful of our most engaging volunteers set up and manned two booths in the children’s area at Freedom Fest. The day was spent interacting with kids and their families.

For one of our activities, we played a tool making game we use to teach youth about adaptation. The idea is simple, using a limited amount of crafting items, inspired by materials found in our desert, you create a tool that will stick to a foam target we’ve provided from a few feet away. Sound simple? Well, it’s a little harder than you’d expect; it's all about perseverance and adaptation. Some of the tools we saw were incredibly imaginative and the shouts of excitement whenever someone got their tool to stick on the target were enough to liven up anyone’s day.

Under our second canopy, staff and volunteers were having fun getting their hands dirty with clay. Children and adults enjoyed learning how coil clay pottery is traditionally made in our region. I heard a few exclaims of delight whenever someone's olla came out just the way they wanted. A few individuals also had fun making whistles and going about the area showing off their works of art to their friends. All in all, the day was unbelievably fun-filled and the heat was made bearable thanks to all the excitement, smiles, and laughter. As the evening's big event snuck up on us, portable lights were lit in our space to keep the fun going until the very last possible moment. Eventually, like all good things, the fun had to come to an end, but the amazing fireworks show brought everything together so well and gave an explosive ending to a fantastic day.

Fireworks show at Freedom Fest 2019