Terrific attendance and meaningful service projects at Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park this year for Your State Parks Day! Over 600 people in nearly 300 cars enjoyed a day of free admission. The park staff and the Friends of Georgia Vets organized three activities that helped make the day special.
In the morning, local children and their parents had fun in a kids fishing rodeo. About 40 boys and girls, ages 5-12, and an equal number of parents caught fish, signed up for raffles, and ate a delicious lunch. This event was hosted by the Cordele Kiwanis Club, and was sponsored by many others in the community, including the Cordele-Crisp Chamber of Commerce, Chick-fil-A, Harveys, the Lake Blackshear Resort, and Striplings’ General Store. Raffle prizes included a free meal at Cordelia’s Restaurant and a free weekend of camping!
In the afternoon, two local Boy Scout Troops worked on park maintenance and improvement.
For several years, Cordele’s Troop 270 has maintained the grounds of the Veterans Memorial. On Saturday, these faithful scouts planted flowers in front of the monument and spruced up the area around the monument.
Troop 260 from Americus helped improve the park by doing some needed maintenance and cleanup of one of the park’s walking trails. For most of the young men in Troop 260, this was their first experience at working in the park.
Al Shauf, President, Friends of the Park, thanked the community for showing its strong support of our local park by supporting Your State Parks Day and other park activities.