The Dixie Arizona Strip Interpretive Association and partnering land management agencies will host an event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, as part of National Get Outdoors Day, stylized as “GO Day.” The ninth annual event will be held at the Tuacahn Outdoor Amphitheater Plaza in Ivins and encourages healthy, active, outdoor fun. Participating partners will offer opportunities for American families to experience both traditional and nontraditional types of outdoor activities. Primary goals of the day are reaching first-time visitors to public lands and reconnecting youth to the outdoors. The event is free and open to the public.
GO Day will offer a mix of information centers and active fun areas where guests, especially kids, can see desert tortoises, learn outdoor survival skills, use a solar telescope, and find lots of information about public lands in the region. Photo opportunities with Smokey the Bear and Seymore Antelope will be provided.
The pilot effort of Go Day was launched on June 14, 2008 and has grown every year. Building on the success of More Kids in the Woods and other efforts to connect Americans, especially children, with nature and active lifestyles, the USDA Forest Service and the American Recreation Coalition led an inclusive, nationwide effort focusing on a single day when people would be inspired and motivated to get outdoors. Last year, over 171 official GO Day sites across the nation welcomed over 48,000 new faces to the great outdoors. GO Day is an outgrowth of the Get Outdoors USA! campaign, which encourages Americans, especially youth, to seek out healthy, active, outdoor lives and embrace parks, forests, refuges, and other public lands and waters. Working with the Forest Service, Get Outdoors USA! hosted six recreation forums in early 2007 and learned that public lands were missing the right triggers to capture the attention of today’s youth. The GO Day concept was first tested at the Outdoor Recreation Village at Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona, which drew over 100,000 visitors.
