This week we learned to fight for our River and the planet! We kicked off summer as we became SPREE Special Agents, challenged each other to implement green practices in our lives, learned how to be a steward of our environment, and experienced a Vac Truck tour.
On Monday we kicked off SPREE summer camp with a bang! We got to know all the campers with different name games and introduced the SPREE Force. Headed up by Chompers, our beaver boss, we learned about all of his friends and helpers who teach us to keep it clean from drain to steam. Then we watched as a natural phenomenon blew through the park and caused a flash flood of sorts. All were kept safe, entertained, and interested in the river by playing games to learn more about water’s effect on our city.
On Tuesday, after seeing the quick effects of water on our river Monday afternoon, our special guests, from the city of Denver, showed us how they react after a big storm brings lots of water through the storm drains right into our rivers and streams. They brought the big vacuum truck and showed us how they can suck up all the trash out of the storm drains and rinse them with their high powered hoses. Then, we got a nice sprinkle ourselves, and enjoyed the cool water and rainbows.
On Wednesday, we kicked off our first in-river Critter Crawl a little further into the park to find more critters. Although a bit muddy, we were able to see and handle many more critters that can tell us all about the health of the river. We also learned how to help teach others how to defeat the trash monster!
On Thursday we had our first Field Day of the summer! At SPREE Special Agent Training Field Day we sharpened our skills, trained our speed and detective skills, as well as explored more of the park than ever before. At our afternoon critter crawl we found the biggest crawdad of the week! We also learned that, when we break the word apart, crawdad comes from other words like crawl, crevice, and crab and the ‘dad’ part of the word comes from the slang word doodad!
On Friday we continued learning how every snow and raindrop in Colorado helps our river and all the different landscapes from the mountains to the city can change our waterways. Then, at graduation, all of our new special agents showcased their ecowarrior skills and celebrated eachother
