The third Rotary Club of Falmouth Cape Cod “Day of Play” burst forth on the Library lawn on Saturday July 8, 2023. The Day of Play is a free community event, at which families enjoy a day of creative, outdoor fun. One of the goals is to encourage families to engage with each other by spending more time outdoors, playing, which studies have shown to be crucial in wholesome growth for children.
Over 800 people attended to take part in more than 24 activities. Popular events included Build-a-hat from recycled paper bags, the Boy Scout Rain Gutter Regatta, which used puffs of air to propel small sailboats, building caterpillar hairpins, planting sunflower seeds in pots to yield leaves capable of absorbing carbon dioxide (C02) and transforming it to oxygen (O2), building scrunchy hair-bands, and putting wash-away tattoos of animals on arms to make children more aware of the variety of animals.
Races and throws challenged the children. The water sponge toss introduced them to the characteristics of water, building paper airplanes and shooting pencil rockets introduced them to aerodynamics and alternative means of flight. Accuracy and dexterity came into play when balls were tossed into buckets. Too much force caused the balls to bounce out of the buckets. Arced tosses were far more effective.
The library’s eastern parking area was used for staging heavy equipment that the children could touch and inspect, including a fire-fighting truck, a huge truck from Lawrence-Lynch corporation, and a police cruiser. These items were hugely popular with the children. We tried hard to obtain an electric car, but due to limited personnel, a unit was not available, but will be next year. A big thank-you to the fire and police departments and our private contractors.
This year, we marked the activity locations with signs on poles holding large umbrellas for rain or shine. The Rotary club put up a tent and numerous locations had sun shelters. We had a table for butterflies, discussing the life cycle of the endangered Monarch species and decrease in pollinators which we depend upon for our vegetables and fruits.
With the increasing frequency of elevated temperature and sudden deluges of rain from intermittent thunderstorms due to climate change, we wanted to show that adaptations can be made to move forward in the future. We encouraged the growth of plants which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it to oxygen, which we as animals need in order to breathe and exist. We demonstrated wind power as an alternative to fossil fuel (rain gutter regatta). Although it was a Day of Play, it was also a time to deal with some significant issues of climate change for future generations.
