Free Family Festival to be held at Frick Park

Venture Outdoors Family and Community Programs Initiative continues with festivals throughout city

(Pittsburgh, PA) – A free Family Outdoors Festival will be held Saturday, June 20 at Frick Park as the first of three similar events to be held throughout the city as part of the Venture Outdoors Family and Community Program Initiative.

The Frick Park Family Outdoors Festival will become another proactive step in the Family and Community Programs Initiative. The initiative seeks to increase the diversity of the of the outdoors community through a series of progressive steps to include minority populations in outdoor recreation.

Three free Family Outdoor Festivals will be held from 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM at various locations throughout the summer season beginning with Frick Park.

• June 20 at Frick Park, corner of Forbes & Braddock Avenue, Wilkinsburg/Regent Square
• July 25 at Mellon Park, corner of 5th & Penn Avenue, East End
• August 29 in Allegheny Commons park, Northside

Activities will include the Climb Pittsburgh rock climbing wall, geocaching, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, an REI environmental stewardship demo, an L.L.Bean camping demo, healthy foods samples, and the Pitt African Drumming Ensemble. Each event will offer giveaway items such as trail maps, bike lights, Heinz Pickle Pins and pedometers to further promote outdoor recreation engagement. All programs will be beginner friendly.

Venture Outdoors membership exceeds 5,000 in 2009, a definite sign of a growing outdoors community since the organization’s inception eight years ago. However, only five percent of those who participate in these programs are not Caucasian, whereas 16 percent of Allegheny County is African American, Hispanic and Asian. Venture Outdoors is working to close that gap.

The Venture Outdoors Festival at Point State Park State in May kicked off this Family and Community Programs Initiative while the Beyond Bikes Day celebration at the Kingsley Association on May 30 continued the initiative’s effort.

Venture Outdoors, a local non profit organization, seeks to transform the Pittsburgh region into a place where the outdoors is an integral part of our culture, our identity and our lifestyle. VO does this by increasing participation in outdoor recreational activity. In turn, this creates a sense of community among participants, an increased awareness of the region’s excellent quality of life and a better understanding of and deeper appreciation for the environment and wilderness among the residents of and visitors to Western Pennsylvania.

For more information, visit www.ventureoutdoors.org or call 412.255.0564.
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