GETTYSBURG, PA: This summer, on June 15, July 20, and Aug. 17, youth (ages 6 to 12) can ride the shuttle bus to Eisenhower National Historic Site for free. Special family activities will be offered each day in addition to the park’s regularly scheduled programming. The park’s new junior ranger activity guide will be available for families to work on and earn their junior ranger badges as well.
June 15 - On June 15, join park staff as they remember and recreate the decade that was the 1950s! Special family programming will explore the best of that decade’s pop culture and daily life. Bring your blue suede shoes and learn to dance along with popular songs of the era. Kids can also visit a touch table with popular toys, games, and technology from the 1950s. It will be a rocking good time.
July 20 - In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landings, the theme for July 20 is “Space Day" at the Eisenhower farm. In recognition of President Eisenhower signing the act creating NASA, special family activities will focus on NASA and outer space. The Westminster Astronomical Society will be on site with astronomy and space displays, daytime solar viewing activities, and will offer a scale model solar system walk. A special junior ranger “Space Explorer" book developed by the National Park Service and NASA will be available to explore beyond Earth. The fun is sure to be out of this world!
August 17 - The park’s final family day event will take place on August 17 with the theme of “sports and recreation." Throughout his life, President Eisenhower was an avid sportsman and athlete. From playing football at West Point to rounds of golf at Augusta National in Georgia, Eisenhower loved recreation. Youth visiting the site will be able to learn all about Eisenhower and sports during his era, and weather dependent, they may get a chance to practice their swing on the president’s putting green!
Eisenhower National Historic Site preserves and interprets the home and farms of the Eisenhower family as a fitting and enduring memorial to the life, work, and times of General Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, and to the events of far-reaching importance that occurred on the property. Learn more at www.nps.gov/eise.
About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 419 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.
Tags: gettysburg eisenhower eisenhower national historic site junior ranger family family activities military battlefield presidents education
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
