Parks & Rec-hosted ‘Wet N Wild Day’ beats the heat at Fred Miller Park
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Lines of bathing suit clad children spiraled around Fred Miller Park on Friday and the air was filled with the smell of sunscreen and laden with squeals of glee as Morristown Parks and Recreation hosted a Wet-N-Wild Water Day.
There were inflatable water slides arranged underneath the shade, and a giant slip-n-slide with a fire hose had been constructed on the hill in front of the Bishop Goodman Pavilion. Parks and recreation staff and volunteers could be seen all around, helping as children launched and disembarked on their water filled adventures.
The event, which was organized by Recreation Program Director Jennifer Gentry, had two time slots for children and their families to enjoy the water fun, with the second time slot ending that evening with an outdoor showing of the movie, “The Bad Guys”.
This event was geared towards children ages 2-15 years old and was free to the public.
Gentry said the weather was perfect, they had a great turnout and she was excited for their new addition of the inflatable water slides this year.
“We’ve had about 200 kids for the first time slot, and usually those numbers will match so I expect this evening to be the same. We did this last year but we didn’t have the inflatable water slide so that’s a new addition this year. We upgraded so we are excited and the kids are really excited,” Gentry said.
Gentry said events like these take a literal village, and that many individuals are behind the scenes helping to coordinate and carry everything out. Without her staff and volunteers this wouldn’t be possible.
“I want to be sure and thank the Fire Department, they come down and they volunteer and give us the hoses and hook everything up for us and everything. Our maintenance crew comes out and they stay with us for hours, there’s lots of staff and I have six volunteers to help run everything.”
Snowie’s Snowcones, Floyd’s Snack Shack and Twisted Lemon were on hand ready to offer refreshment throughout the day.
Morristown Parks and Recreation will be partnering with the Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce and Starlight Cinema to host a Back to School Bash on July 28. They are still accepting vendor applications for this event and if interested please call Jennifer Gentry at 423-586-0260.

