Durham Parks and Recreation: Play More!

By: Andrea Hicks, Recreation Assistant Supervisor Let’s have fun with chalk! Paint your park, driveway, sidewalks and more.  Here are some great activities that your little ones can do as well as the entire family.  Encouraging Messages are a great chalk activity. Get out and spread encouraging messages of hope during this time of uncertainty to encourage your neighbors and community. Please remember to keep in mind social distancing while doing this activity.  And let your creativity run wild.   Mosaic Chalk Art can be interactive and fun for the entire family. Create pretty mosaic chalk pieces that will brighten anyone's day while out and about. All you need is masking tape or painters tape to help outline the design on the concrete.  Once the design is taped down, use chalk to color the shapes between the tape different colors. Add a special twist by adding a short message within your art. Chalk Portraits are also a great way to spend ...

By: Jennifer McDuffie, Durham Community Trail Watch Founding Member S ome articles say a safe "social distance" while exercising is 10-12 feet or 'double the distance,' not 6 feet, due to heavier breathing and the "slip stream" effect. But our wonderful trails are just 6 feet wide! How are we to continue enjoying our trails and keep ourselves and others safe at the same time? Here are some suggestions: Wear a mask. If you don't have one, you can even make one out of an old t-shirt (no sewing even required). Announce yourself. If you are coming up behind someone on the trail, let them know so they can move off the trail to let you pass. Then pass them as far left as possible. Single file if someone is passing. If you are traveling with family and you hear someone behind or see someone ahead, drop to single file and move off the trail until they have passed. Don't pass down the middle. Whenever possible, avoid running or riding BETWEEN tw...

By: James Lim and Jennifer Smart, Water Management Drip. Drip. Drip. The average American household wastes nearly 10,000 gallons each year from easy-to-fix water leaks—that’s the amount of water needed to wash 300 loads of laundry. If that doesn’t seem like a lot, consider that across the country, easy-to-fix household leaks can add up to nearly 1 trillion gallons of water lost every year. So, as we celebrate Earth Day, let’s do something about it! With so many of us spending time at home, now is as good a time as any to take 10 minutes to look for leaks (you can even get the kids to help). Here’s how to identify leaks around your home: Turn off anything that uses water inside and outside your home. Read your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter changes at all, you probably have a leak. Learn how to locate and read your meter in this video.   Check for toilets with silent leaks by putting a few drops of food coloring in...

While we wish we could be together in person at Durham Central Park for our annual Earth Day celebration, we’re taking this celebration digitally and observing Earth Day on our social media platforms from April 17 through 22! During this virtual event, we’re partnering with some awesome Durham departments and organizations to generate awareness and encourage our community to be proactive in making our planet the best it can be! These organizations include Water Management , Keep Durham Beautiful , Stormwater , Sustainability Office of Durham County , and CompostNow . History of Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, it now includes events coordinated globally through the Earth Day Network in more than 193 countries. This year, we are celebrating the 50th year of Earth Day taking place! For a detailed timeline of history and events that took place leading up to the ...

By: Mark Kinsey, Office Assistant Kids love playgrounds. They’re a great way to burn off energy, stretch one’s abilities, and have fun. Since all of our playgrounds are currently closed, parents might be wondering what there is for children to do in the parks. Of course, little people don’t really need playgrounds to enjoy the outdoors. Children are natural explorers, bringing wonder and curiosity to everything they do. In the hands of a child, a rock is a building block, a stick becomes a prop, and a blade of grass is used as a whistle. In that light, all of our parks are great spaces for children to have fun during the city and state stay-at-home orders. But if you’re looking for some parks with a variety of non-playground activities that might be fun for the young at heart, we are going to write blog posts about several options in the coming weeks. This week, let’s talk about Sandy Creek Park. About the Park Sandy Creek Park is largely an environmental park with educati...

By: Kristen Randall, Special Programs Recreation Assistant Supervisor Here are some fun activities ​geared towards children ages 3-7 that you can play indoors or outdoors with the entire family! Make sure to connect with us on social media and share a picture of your family playing these games and completing the activity. Color Game  The objective of the game is to work on identifying colors, working on matching, and getting your child moving. This game can be played indoors or outdoors! Supplies needed:  Colored Construction paper, A bowl [If you don’t have construction paper use crayons or markers] How to Play: Each child/children comes up to the bowl and picks a color. Once the child/children pick a color they need to go find something in the house, garage, or outside that is the same color and bring it back. Designate an area on the floor for items to be placed. Then pick another color from the bowl and repeat 4 rounds Have each child place all 4 items in fro...

By: Hillary Harrison, Recreation Specialist Are you looking for something different to do outside with your family? Now more than ever we should be taking time to go outdoors to breathe fresh air and feel the sunshine on our skin. But perhaps a walk around the neighborhood or in your backyard just isn't cutting it right now. Add some excitement and explore a little more by going on a Nature Scavenger Hunt! A scavenger hunt is a great way to get the whole family involved in engaging with the outdoors. We've created a downloadable Nature Scavenger Hunt activity sheet for you to print out at home! After downloading the activity sheet, check out the many ways you and your family can go on the hunt... Race Each Other: Everyone chooses a few items to find. See who can find all of their items first!  Work Together: Everyone works together to find as many items on the hunt as you can. Try to see if you can find them all!  Play PARK (like BINGO but with 4 letters):...

By Cassandra Bennett,  Recreation Operations Supervisor Flower and vegetable gardens have accompanied homes for hundreds of years, though their layout and plants have changed with the passage of time. Today, only a few traces of these former gardens remain in Durham Parks and Recreation’s parks. While out on the trail, or a park’s open spaces, you may have spotted the privet, boxwood, wisteria, daffodils, various ivies, periwinkle, and yucca. Though some of these plants are considered invasive today, they are a steadfast reminder of what once were quintessential home gardens of their era. At Leigh Farm Park and West Point on the Eno, we are fortunate to have first-hand, family accounts of these well-tended outdoor living spaces. Both, just off their homes’ porch, were intensely personal reflections of their gardeners’ passions, preferences, and period. The Leigh Garden at Leigh Farm Park  At nineteen, Ida Leigh, the youngest of Stanford’s twenty children, wrote that her g...

By: Stacy Stone, Recreation Assistant Supervisor As we all settle into new routines of spending more time at home, many of us are also looking for ways to get outdoors. While spending time outside can have great physical and mental benefits, our favorite activities now come with new challenges and an increased importance on lowering our impacts on outdoor spaces and one another. To help you enjoy the outdoors in a way that’s safe for you and the environment, here are some tips to get started: Plan Ahead  Full parking lots and crowded parks and trails are becoming more common sight at many outdoor spaces. By planning to visit less popular parks and avoiding peak use times, like a busy trailhead right after work, you can maintain better social distancing and enjoy some peace and quiet in nature. It’s also a great excuse to check out a new park. While City parks are still open, many state and regional park sites are closing to protect visitors and staff. Check online or call a...

By: Hillary Harrison, Recreation Specialist Have you ever explored the woods or a riverbank and found an old glass bottle? As you take a closer look you realize you don’t see a bottle this shape in stores. With a closer look you see something stamped on it. Perhaps it’s a date? When it was made? When the contents expired? Either way, you know this is a very old bottle. You may wonder how it could have survived this long buried beneath the dirt and years of fallen leaves. What you may not know is if you hadn’t found that bottle, it could have stayed there untouched and unchanged for one million years! That’s right, glass can take at least one million years to break down in nature. Some experts even believe it will never break down and decompose. Decomposition happens naturally over time due to a variety of factors from moisture levels to the amount of microorganisms present to temperature. The amount of time it takes for trash to break down is also highly dependent on the material...