Biscayne National Park’s Family Fun Fest Highlights Maritime Heritage in the National Parks

On Sunday, January 10 from 1- 4 pm, Biscayne National Park’s Family Fun Fest theme will be “I’m on a Boat!"

News Release Date: January 6, 2016

Contact: Gary Bremen, 305-230-1144, x007

 HOMESTEAD, Fla. --- There are over 80 ocean, coastal and Great Lakes parks in the National Park System, protecting hundreds of years of maritime heritage for all Americans. On Sunday, January 10 from 1- 4 pm, Biscayne National Park’s Family Fun Fest theme will be “I’m on a Boat!,” featuring activities from 5 of these parks. The event also offers educational opportunities for parents with toddlers at Family Fun Fest Junior. The free event takes place at the park’s Dante Fascell Visitor Center, 9 miles east of Homestead. Free trolley service to the park is provided by the City of Homestead from downtown’s Losner Park.

“I’m on a Boat!” will feature five hands-on and engaging activity stations located around the visitor center. Stations, named after the parks featured, include:

• New Bedford Whaling – Try the whaleman’s art of scrimshaw.
• Salem Maritime – Talk “nauti” with the captain of an imaginary ship.
• Sleeping Bear Dunes – Participate in a daring rescue of a shipwrecked Teddy Bear!
• San Francisco Maritime – Help unload salmon from the 1886 sailing ship Balclutha.
• Biscayne – Can a cannonball tell a story? You bet!
• I’m on a Boat Junior – A special station for parents with toddlers!

Participants receive a passport to get stamped at each activity station, and those who complete all five activities (or two activities for Family Fun Fest Junior participants) will earn a specially-designed button to remember the day. Earning all five buttons in a season earns a Family Fun Fest Fanatic award in April.

Subsequent events throughout the 2015-2016 season look at more specific topics that also relate to Biscayne National Park:

• My Fellow Americans – February 14, 2016 – Discover Biscayne’s presidential connections!
• Wild for Wildlife! – March 13, 2016 – wolves and bears and dinosaurs? Oh my!!
• Parks and Recreation – April 10, 2016 – How many ways are there to have fun in a national park? How high can you count?

Family Fun Fest is made possible through the donations of generous visitors and the Bobby Duryea Fund at the South Florida National Parks Trust, with additional support from the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves, The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Roger Williams National Memorial, Pipestone National Monument, Yosemite National Park, Great Basin National Park, and a host of dedicated volunteers.

The Dante Fascell Visitor Center is located at 9700 SW 328 Street, nine miles east of Homestead, Florida. For more information about Biscayne National Park visit nps.gov/bisc or follow the park on Facebook, Twitteror Instagram at “biscaynenps.”

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About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 409 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.