Jennings celebrates annual summer event
The end of July is when the prairie at Jennings Environmental Education Center is in peak bloom, which always calls for a commemoration.
The annual Celebrate the Bloom event takes place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at Jennings, and in addition to food and festivities, park staff and other agencies will help visitors get an even better glimpse of the park’s plant and wildlife.
There will be a different tour or presentation of the prairie every hour throughout the event Saturday, which will teach park visitors in-depth lessons on the massasauga rattlesnake, prairie pollinators and habitat expansion efforts at the park. Brandi Miller-Parrish, an environmental education specialist at Jennings, said experts of different fields lead the tours at the event.
“They are all being led by professionals in that field,” Miller-Parrish said. “It's not Jennings staff leading; it's scientists.”
There will also be live music, live animals presented by an environmental educator, and the Foltz School House will be open for tours throughout the day.
Miller-Parrish also said there will be numerous vendors at the event, including Stick City Brewing, which will donate 10% of its proceeds from the day to the Moraine McConnells Mill Jennings Commission.
Admission to Celebrate the Bloom is free. Miller-Parrish said that because parking at Jennings is limited, there will be shuttles running from the nearby Old Stone House to the park throughout the day.
