In the News

Lloyd Center Fun-Fest Draws Huge Crowd

Hundreds of enthusiastic visitors, some of them experiencing the wonders of Dartmouth’s Lloyd Center for the very first time, shook off last Sunday afternoon’s rainstorm and dove headlong into an afternoon filled with fun, games, and engaging nature activities as this local once-a-year party for the local community, the Fall Family Fun-Fest, continues to grow in popularity. Whole families danced to the wonderfully “wild and crazy” music of the Toe Jam Puppet Band, ate their way through two enormous cakes from Creative Endeavors and twenty gallons of homemade ice cream from the Oxford Creamery, and even had time to visit the fascinating exhibits on all three levels of the Nature Center.

Whenever the band took a break, the partygoers quickly moved on to exciting nature activities Lloyd Center volunteers had designed just for the occasion, including a great scavenger hunt organized by DNRT officials, a plastic duck-painting activity run by local Audubon Society representatives, a fully-subscribed dip-netting expedition, led by the Center’s Director of Research, Mark Mello, and the traditional “Whatzit?” table. To make things even more exciting, drawings were held for a cleverly designed squirrel-resistant (but “friendly”) birdfeeder and a hand-crafted ceramic birdbath, both generously donated for the occasion by Dartmoor Gifts, of nearby Russells Mills Village.

With face-painting, crafts, and a talented caricature artist on hand, the children made the most of every moment. Making birdfeeders out of bagels, thumbprint-magnets, model dragonflies, butterfly life-cycles portrayed in macaroni, nature collages, and leaf prints the children took lots of memories home. Quinn School Third-grader, Victoria Cornell, stepped up to the plate when an adult volunteer was unexpectedly detained elsewhere, and masterfully took on the challenge of running the face-painting booth. She took her assignment seriously and was a smash-hit with all the younger kids.

Commenting on the event’s success, Executive Director D’Arcy MacMahon said he was “gratified to see the number of attendees continuing to grow, even surpassing the crowds of the past couple of years, whose Fall Fun-Fests were blessed with much warmer and sunnier weather,” proving once again that south coast nature-lovers know how to have a good time and know a good party when they see one. He thanked “each and every volunteer, without whose enthusiastic help, this annual gift to the community could never have become such a whacking success!” Also thanked were an impressive number of local businesses, including Lees Market, Shaw’s, Stop & Shop, Sylvan Nursery, New York Bagel, CV Variety, Marvin Grain, AC Moore and BJ’s Wholesale Club.