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Tips to help you connect your family to nature!
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(Top) Meet Wilder! Get Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) brought their mascot Wilder. Wilder is half yeti, half mountain goat. He is encouraging kids to explore what's outside their backdoor! Helping more Colorado youth get outside. Youth at the outdoor festival got a chance to hug, knuckle and high five this fun creature! (Bottom left) It's not a summer festival without a pie and watermelon eating contest. (Bottom right) FOYAN Board members Trig and IvAnn paddled several short trips down the Uncompahgre River with a raft full of kids waiting for the big splash! (Photos/Monica Voehringer-FOYAN) Saturday, May 30th turned Riverbottom Park into a hub of activity as Friends of Youth and Nature (FOYAN) hosted its third annual Bring On The Summer Festival. From 11am–4pm, families from across the Western Slope came out for a free afternoon of outdoor games, music, food, and friendly contests. Last year's festival drew more than 3,000 youth and family members, and this year's crowd was only slightly tempered by cloud cover and other nearby events. FOYAN connects local youth to the outdoors, and the festival is a chance to show families just how much fun that can be close to home. Kids floated rafts down the Uncompahgre, scrambled to unwrap and don frozen t-shirts and lifejackets to win prizes, raced in relays, and tested their aim in gelly ball. There were watermelon and pie eating contests, strider bikes for the littlest riders, yard games, and skill-building clinics for soccer and basketball. Free haircuts courtesy of Finesse Barbershop and free face painting proved popular, with dozens of eager kids and families lining up to take part. The library's book bike rolled in with summer reading ideas, and Wilder—the larger-than-life mascot of the GOCO-funded Generation Wild program—roamed the park reminding everyone that the best adventures start just outside the door. Part goat, part yeti, and all friend, he was a hit with attendees young and old. Wilder's visit was a fitting nod to FOYAN's role as a founding member of Generation Wild of the Uncompahgre, a regional coalition originally launched in 2023 and led by the Montrose Recreation District to connect more area youth and families with the outdoors. DJ MLOD Pro kept the music going while bilingual host Angel D, known around town as "El Maza," kept the energy up between contests. Kids and adults alike were dancing and enjoying the day, bringing smiles to the faces of every passerby. Behind the fun is serious work. FOYAN leads the Together for Resilient Youth (TRY) coalition, a partnership of local organizations that helps young people facing real barriers get outside, build confidence, and connect with mentors and one another. Time in nature is one of the most accessible tools we have for youth mental health and resilience, and events like this one open the door for kids who might not otherwise get the chance. A day this size only happens through significant community support. FOYAN extends deep gratitude to the sponsors who made the 2026 festival possible: headline sponsors The Colorado Health Foundation and The Kampe Foundation, as well as the Marston-Lehmann Family Fund, Western Colorado Community Foundation, The Colorado Trust, Colorado Outdoors, Delta Montrose Electric Association, the City of Montrose, the Montrose Community Foundation, Enstrom Candies, Alpine Bank, I Matter, Delta County Federal Credit Union, ANB Bank, and Renewal by Andersen. Special thanks to Finesse for free youth haircuts, The Montrose Lifestyle for marketing support, Rocky Mountain Ice, and all of the partner organizations who brought fun activities and games to the park for kids to participate in. Every sponsorship dollar goes right back into getting more area youth outside, covering the gear, transportation, scholarships, and year-round outings that make up FOYAN's work across Delta, Montrose, Ouray, and Mesa counties. If you missed this year's festival, or want to help make next year's event even bigger, FOYAN welcomes volunteers, activity partners, and donations. Learn more or give at foyan.org.
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(Top Left) Meet Wilder- GOCO Generation Wild's mascot. Wilder is half yeti- half mountain goat and your kids best friend to encourage them to step outside their door to explore nature, and engage in new outdoor activities. (Top Right) Which kid is going to win the watermelon eating contest at the Bring on the Summer Festival? (Bottom Left) This is your chance to test your aim at the Gelly Ball Game. (Bottom Right). Partners-West Mentoring has their ducks in a row for your family to compete with their best rubber duckies in a race down the creek at Riverbottom Park. Have you met Wilder yet? Half yeti and half mountain goat, Wilder is your kids' new amazing outdoor friend! As GOCO's Generation Wild mascot, he is on a mission to help your kids rediscover all the benefits waiting for them just outside your door, where things are a little wilder, a little happier, and a whole lot healthier. Friends of Youth and Nature (FOYAN) will be hosting Wilder at a summer fun kickoff celebration in Montrose on May 30th. Bring on the Summer Outdoor Fest is an afternoon of outdoor games, sports, nature exploration, art, and music! Activities begin at 11:00 am at Riverbottom Park in Montrose, and continue until 4:00 pm. This is your chance to encourage your kids to try a new outdoor activity or a nature challenge. Starting at noon, there will be ducky races, soccer and basketball skills sessions, strider bike instruction, multiple short river paddles, a life jacket scramble, gelly ball games (similar to paint ball), art projects, relay races, disc golf, and pie and water melon eating contests. The Montrose Regional Library book bike will be there with an assortment of youth books for summer reading. Once again, Finesse will be offering free youth haircuts for the summer! All these activities are free, so bring the family to Riverbottom Park for the afternoon. An outdoor festival isn’t complete without music, food and drinks. MC Angel D "El Maza" and DJ MLOD Pro will keep up the energy. Delicious kid-friendly food and a selection of drinks for the thirsty folks will be available. “This is an opportunity to bring our community together and be outside enjoying games, food, and music. There is something for everyone and every age group," said Anita Evans, Chair of Friends of Youth and Nature. The festival is the primary fundraiser for FOYAN. All proceeds will help FOYAN cover the cost of getting more kids outside to support mental health, resilience, healthy lifestyles and outdoor education in coordination with staff from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Montrose Recreation District, and many other partners. "It isn’t always easy to get kids to turn off the computer or put down the game controller, so this festival is a way to show your kids what's outside for them. We are lucky to have a variety of local options for kids to do in the summer as well as so much public land surrounding our communities to explore and enjoy,” added Evans. One of FOYAN's goals is to remove barriers for local youth to participate in outdoor experiences. FOYAN helps cover the cost of school district field trips including bus transportation, provides scholarships for kids (particularly underserved youth) to attend camps, helps offset school costs associated with nature learning events, and continues to expand outdoor gear items for the free gear library available for youth partners in Delta, Montrose and Ouray Counties. "This will be the third annual Bring on the Summer Festival. In the past 2 years the event has drawn between 1,500–3,000 youth and families so we are hoping for another great turnout!" added Anne Janik, FOYAN event organizer. We are very fortunate to have generous sponsors who support FOYAN’s mission including Colorado Health Foundation, Western Colorado Community Foundation, Colorado Outdoors, Colorado Trust, City of Montrose, and many more. Are you still wondering why your kids should play outside? Their curiosity grows stronger. Their self-reliance grows stronger. And so does your kid! Please consider supporting our mission of getting more kids outside. Bring on the Summer Flyer 2026 Schedule of Events 2026  A traditional summer festival activity is the pie-eating contest! Both adults and kids had a chance to gobble up ! Bring on the Summer Outdoor Festival on Memorial Day weekend brought several hundred youth and families to River Bottom Park to join in a fun summer celebration! The festival was an opportunity to bring our community together and be outside enjoying games, food, and music. There was something for everyone. The idea behind the festival was to engage kids and families in outdoor activities that they could continue to do throughout summer. Organizations that provide summer programs, workshops and camps for youth were encouraged to participate and engage kids and families with a taste of their offerings for the summer. As part of the festival, a skateboard contest drew 17 competitors of all levels including Ollie Graves, an upcoming athlete from Western Colorado with Olympic potential. Prizes were awarded to the top three contestants in the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels as well as for the highest air, and best trick. The skate maneuvers were artistic and innovative attracting over 150 observers. Junktown Clothing and La Familia Music Group (LFMG) sponsored the contest. The competition drew teens and young adults to the festival. "We hope Montrose will be part of a regional competition and we can continue to host this as an annual event," said Johnny Sales, competition host. Other outdoor sports included a basketball tournament sponsored by Dripping Industries and disc golf sponsored by Aces Flys Dyes. "It was great to have the community come together at this festival and to see the teens and young adults wanting to participate in it. These types of events are needed in our community and we plan to provide more fun events like this in the future," said Edgar Quiroz, of LFMG Music Academy and festival co- organizer. In addition, a few timeless festival events included the cornhole tournament, pie-eating contest, and the ducky races - all with great prizes provided by Hot Water Productions, Mi Mexico, Fiesta Guadalajara, and Tacos and Beer. Safeway and City Market (South) provided the delicious pies! The Montrose Art Guild is hosting several summer youth art workshops and organized a bird art activity that attracted many young artists. After creating their own birds, kids were able to learn to identify common local birds with representatives from the Black Canyon Audubon Society. A few other activities included a fossil dig, displays of dinosaur skulls, rock painting, chalk art, bubble play, face painting, bouncy house, backyard games, free books for summer reading and much more. A Time to Dance featured several dance style demos as teasers to their summer dance programs, and Montrose Surf and Cycle provided wave surfing demos. The One Takers provided live music. LFMG Music Academy brought out a student artist to perform music he has been working on at the Academy during a short jam session. The festival is the primary fundraiser for the nonprofit Friends of Youth and Nature (FOYAN). All proceeds will help FOYAN cover the cost of getting more kids outside, which has been proven to help kids build confidence, resilience, healthy lifestyles, and skills for problem solving. One of FOYAN'S goals is to remove the barriers for our local youth to participate in nature experiences that build these traits. FOYAN helps cover the cost of bus transportation for many school district field trips, provides scholarships for underserved youth and other community youth for camps, assists with costs associated with field trips and nature learning events, and will expand available items in the free outdoor gear library for youth partners of FOYAN in Montrose and Ouray Counties. "We would like to thank our community members for their support of the event and our efforts to get more kids engaged in healthy, active outdoor activities. This event could not have been such a success without our sponsors, all the organizations that provided an assortment of summer activities for our youth and the invaluable volunteers that helped Bring on the summer - Outdoor Festival" said Anita Evans, FOYAN Chair We hope families and kids attending the festival took home a few new ideas for summer. Please join the fun next year and help us get more kids outside! Thank You to all the providers of youth activities for the festival: Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Canyons Association, Montrose Regional Library, Bill Heddles Recreation Center, the Montrose Recreation District, The Museum of Western Colorado, Montrose Art Guild, Hispanic Affairs Project, Audubon Society, Metaphorse (horse therapy), Montrose City Youth Council (all around festival help), Black Canyon Boys and Girls Club, Partners West (cornhole, ducky races), Second Chance Humane Society, Girl Scouts of Colorado, and Boy Scout Troops (490 and 491). List of Sponsors: Platinum ($1000+) Western Colorado Community Foundation Colorado Health Foundation The Kampe Foundation Montrose Hardware LFMG Music Academy Bronze ($500+) Circle of Dreams Foundation Montrose Community Foundation City of Montrose Bank of Colorado Grove Street Alchemy High Country Beverage Montrose Daily Press Colorado Boy Brewing Hot Water Productions Silver ($250) Chow Down Pet Supply Rocky Mountain Ice Bronze ($100+) Davis Service Center Montrose Ford Nissan Peer Kindness Alpine Bank San Juan Coffee House  Students use a nature guide to help identify the bird in hand. The Black Canyon Audubon Society volunteers host a learning station featuring taxidermy bird specimens to help students learn about bird adaptations to their environment and food sources, and how to identify birds likely observed in their neighborhoods during the North Fork Conservation Days (Paonia). It’s a bit like speed dating for adults only this event involves quick learning interactions for kids. Springtime environmental education events are ways for elementary students to engage with natural resource experts to learn as much as possible in a short period. Each dedicated specialist has 20-25 minutes to engage elementary students about their area of expertise with hands-on activities and tips about their jobs. Students rotate through 8 to 9 stations in a day to learn about many topics, such as how forests contribute to healthy watersheds, how various aquatic insects indicate water quality, what kinds of items can be recycled, and much more. Montrose, Grand Junction, and the North Fork Valley all have festivals organized and sponsored by many organizations, partners, and volunteers who work together to provide this opportunity for the youth of these communities.
Presenters, mostly natural resources experts from various agencies, explain aspects of their field that most kids, and even some adults, never think about. As an added bonus, students get insights into various natural resource careers. “These can be defining moments for young minds that may influence their choices for a lifelong passion or a future career path,” says Anita Evans of Friends of Youth and Nature, one of the funding contributors to the event. For the last 30 years, fourth graders from the Uncompahgre Valley have attended the Montrose event organized by the Shavano Conservation District. The Natural Resource Festival (previously known as the Water Festival) draws approximately 450 -500 students each year. This May students headed to Baldridge Park for a full day of fun learning activities. “Classes rotate through 9 learning stations, out of 29 featured at the festival, and engage in activities that demonstrate the connections between their lives and the resources they depend on. Activities are focused on all of our natural resources, with an emphasis on water connections in their lives,” explains Mendy Stewart, Education Specialist for the Shavano Conservation District, and festival organizer. “The activities are meant to be ‘hands-on’, where kids really get in the mix of things,” Stewart added. A wide array of resource topics and activities are featured such as: demonstrating how river water is treated before being sent to our faucets, making play-dough watersheds and determining where the rivers and lakes form after a simulated rainstorm, making your own recycled paper, panning for silver while learning about Colorado’s Mining history with the Colorado Department of Reclamation and Mine Safety, practicing moving water through irrigation pipes with the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users, measuring the flow of a nearby stream with a Colorado Water Commissioner and putting their math minds to work figuring the rate of flow in cubic feet per second (cfs). Other activities help kids to learn things like “Leave No Trace” and how to minimize impacts when exploring nature. The Colorado State Forestry Department sets up an experiment where students predict the amount and quality of rainwater runoff between two watersheds (actually dirt-filled culverts), one with plants and one with bare soil. After predicting the outcome of a rainstorm, the students learn how plant cover works to slow runoff, so it can be absorbed within the watershed. “This is a huge benefit to water quality, catching soil and pollutants before they reach rivers,” explains Tanya Banulis, Colorado State forester. Dave Dearstyne, retired Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) soil scientist, focuses students’ attention on detecting some of the millions of microorganisms living in our soil. Who would think to look that closely at dirt? This event involves a lot of planning and behind-the scenes work such as pre-festival classroom presentations and festival logistics. The festival's successes are attributed to the dedication of Stewart and the supporting host agency, the Shavano Valley Conservation District. Festival supplies, student transportation, and festival planning are made possible through matching funds to the Shavano Conservation District received from the Colorado State Conservation Board. The goal of this program is to help Conservation Districts in Colorado implement conservation projects and educational activities. In addition to the festival, the funds have also made conservation education available to San Miguel, Ouray, and Montrose County students. The activities also include source pollution presentations, 9th grade Mancos Shale Soil Salinity Experiments, and 5th and 6th grade conservation poster contests. Stewart says these events, “...inspire learning opportunities for Western Slope students who will be part of an outdoor savvy generation. We hope they will be empowered to use what they learn to influence future decisions about land and water uses that benefit our planet now and in the future.” Some kids take time to reflect about what they learned during the festivals; others are super excited and cannot stop talking about the day. Parents or relatives can encourage more discussion or help reinforce significant concepts kids learned. Ask your child what learning station impressed them the most? Here are a few questions that will help you start a discussion with your student: What can you tell me about the Gunnison or Colorado River’s journey to the ocean? What type of water bugs will you find in your favorite fishing spot? How fast is the river near you flowing this spring? What are the components of a beehive? How can you harness solar power? Can you use it to make a fruit smoothie or baked good? What should you put into your community’s recycle bins? What foods are produced locally and where can you find them? Friends of Youth and Nature is a non-profit promoting opportunities for youth and families to get outside, experience outdoor activities, and explore nature. Your donations as well as grants received by FOYAN from the Gunnison Basin Roundtable (DNR- Colorado Water Conservation Board) and Forever Our Rivers (Connecting Rivers and Communities) have enabled FOYAN to contribute funding for these festivals. |
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