Chandra Thomas said seeing a snake was frightening.
“My dad was scared of it and I was too,” the eight-year-old Lansing resident said.
Chandra, her two-year-old sister Amari and father Stephen Thomas were just some of the families at Conservation Day.
The event was sponsored by the Potter Park Zoological Society and held at the Potter Park & Zoo, 1301 S. Pennsylvania Ave.
Families were invited to take part in seminars, demonstrations and craft activities that focused on saving the environment.
Organizations like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan United Conservation Clubs and the MSU Bug House were all present for families to talk to.
Dennis Laidler, education curator for the society, said the event had several hands-on activities.
“Some of these kids have been hanging for an hour now,” he said. “We try to have as much interactive material.”
By having demonstrations with live animals and crafts, like building a birdhouse from tennis ball containers, Laidler said educating children is a great way to reach adults.
“When children are young they are still developing their value system,” he said.
But education isn’t the only way to reach people, Laidler said.
“We try to make it fun, if people are having a good time and learn something it is kind of instilled in their memory,” he said.
Graduate student Laura Palombi, had a table for the MSU Bug House with insect collections and live bugs for kids to handle.
Palombi said the families enjoyed handing the bugs and would look for insects they had seen in the wild in the collection case.
“People need to appreciate what lives in your own backyard,” she said.
At her table, Palombi had Madagascar hissing cockroaches, an African millipede and two walking sticks.
But she said exotic countries are not the only place where different looking little critters live.
“People don’t realize Michigan has a lot of diversity,” she said.
Bugs weren’t the only critters young and old environmentalist families could see.
Lisa Gallinari, a wildlife education specialist for the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, had a live bald eagle plus several furs from a beaver, skunk and an otter for children to touch.
“Kids love the opportunity to touch animals that they will never get to touch in the wild,” she said.
While none of the animal furs she had came from endangered animals, Gallinari said the animals still have problems.
“Our main problem in Michigan is a lot of our wetlands are being destroyed,” she said.
For Lansing resident Jeff Jakeway, time at the zoo isn’t just for learning.
It is also a great way to spend time with his daughter five-year-old daughter Courtni.
“We have a family pass for the zoo, we come every weekend,” he said. “The kids enjoy it.”
Courtni spent the day making a bird house, a pair of binoculars and colored a paper bird.
“I’m having a good time,” she said.
