16 Jun Get Outdoors Colorado!

Oh boy, this week was crazy busy! There was tons to get ready and do before the big day of Get Outdoors Day! Prior to starting this internship I had no idea that this event existed, which is an absolute shame! This event is a great place to get exposed to many agencies and organizations.

National Get Outdoors Day, or GO Day for short, is one of the biggest events of the year for the Interpretation and Education team here at the Intermountain Regional Office.  This year it took place on Saturday, June 10th, at Sloan’s Lake in Denver, Colorado. For those who don’t know what National Get Outdoors Day is, it’s an event where people from federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the recreation industry team up to promote getting active in the outdoors. Ultimately, the purpose of this event is to get younger generations and today’s youth interested in the great outdoors, and the event certainly did not disappoint!

As I have mentioned before, I am not located in a park but am at the Intermountain Regional Office located in Lakewood, Colorado. The nearest national park to our office is Rocky Mountain National Park, but even that is still two hours away. Although we are not conveniently located close to a park or do outreach for a certain park, we try to engage with the community of the city; it allows us to connect with people here in the urban area.  That is a super important key that I take away from being located in the city, that it makes it easier for us to throw events such as GO Day in order to outreach to people that they should check out national parks. Having the location for GO Day conveniently at Sloan’s lake in Denver made it possible for us and other organizations to target underserved populations and first-time visitors to public lands. In this area there are many people who have never visited a national park, let alone are interested in outdoor activities. GO Day is super helpful in promoting what our public lands can offer, and all the activities at the event allow people to give the outdoors a try!

At this event I got to work closely with another LHIP intern, Cristina, who is also located at the Intermountain Regional Office with me. Although Cristina is located in the same office as me, she is working in the Public Affairs/Communications department and I am working in the Interpretation and Education department. Although we work in separate departments, for this event and many other occasions our departments come together and collaborate. Specifically, together we were in charge of taking photographs and covering GO Day on social media. We both had a blast at the event and it was awesome to connect with another LHIP intern, as many of us will never meet in person till we all meet here in Denver for our post-internship workshop later this summer. I can’t wait to see where this internship takes us and all the opportunities to work together!

  Check out the links below to see how you can get involved locally or even check out when future events will take place! National Get Outdoors Day: http://www.nationalgetoutdoorsday.org/ Get Outdoors Colorado: http://www.getoutdoorscolorado.org/ngod