GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The City of Grand Rapids got the community involved in water conservation education with its "Water Pool-Ooza on the Grand" event on Saturday.
Hosted at Riverside Park from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the free event focused on using family-friendly activities to teach people more about water.
"We are offering a variety of learning opportunities, a way to engage and have hands-on activities for people to come in and learn about what it takes to protect our waters," said Hillary Caron, the water education and programs coordinator with the City of Grand Rapids Water System.
There were more than 20 nonprofits, community partners and water professionals with educational tabletop activities centered around water.
Other activities included kayaking with GR Outside, Touch-a-Truck with the City of Grand Rapids public services departments and the Grand Rapids Fire Department demonstrating what they do and discussing how they became firefighters.
"We're really trying to encourage water champions throughout the City of Grand Rapids and Grand River watershed," Caron said. "We have various hands-on activities so that you can learn about source water, where your water comes from, what happens after you use it, how it's treated so it's safe for all of you and then also how to recreate and have fun, responsibly."
She said events like this are important so the community is better educated on how to conserve water and keep it clean for future generations.
"Behind every drop of clean water there's hundreds of careers, but in order to make sure that our waters are safe for future generations, we need people that are interested in engaging and learning about water and what they can do to protect it," Caron said.
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