ALASKA—This year Woodsy Owl celebrates 50 years of caring for the land, beginning with his "Give a Hoot! Don’t Pollute!” motto that gave way to the all-encompassing, “Lend a Hand! Care for the Land!” encouraging everyone to make a positive difference in their world.

Set on motivating kids (and adults, too!) to form healthy and long-lasting relationships with nature, the staff at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center decided to pull out all the stops to celebrate Woodsy’s 50th birthday. With motivation in mind, the visitor center staff decided to host a multi-day celebration beginning Sept. 15 to reach visitors and hopefully engage people in nearby communities.

“It was a lot of planning, preparation and set up on the front end, but once it was in full swing, there was not as great of a need for daily staff support. Launching a ‘choose your own adventure’ event that is outside and spread out was the best solution for a COVID world,” said Melissa O’Donnell, assistant director, Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.

Woodsy’s messaging is focused on early childhood through second grade, so that was a big factor in the activities chosen. Staff created self-guided opportunities so families and visitors could participate at their own pace. Because it was a birthday party, staff also wanted everything to look fun and festive, so making sure there were lots of bright colors and decorations and common birthday motifs (like candles!) was important. To live up to Woodsy’s ideals, most of the activities and decorations were made from recycled materials.

Activities were spread out on trails and prizes were available as a reward for completing the 50-item scavenger hunt. Fifty candles decorated the walkway to the Visitor Center with individual messages along the way about how to lend a hand and how to give a hoot and not pollute. And Woodsy’s nature challenge encouraged families to find fun ways to reduce, reuse and recycle as they hiked along some of the interpretive trails.

“We’d been thinking about it for a while, and it’s been an all hands on deck push from our team for about a month. Our staff all signed up for the event ideas they were most interested in and were pretty much given creative freedom on the final version. We’re really happy with how things turned out and that things feel so cohesive while all having staff’s individual touches,” said lead interpreter Julia Schostak.

Staff promoted the event with a news release a week ahead of the start of the 10-day event and participated in a radio interview on the first day of the celebration.

“We posted about Woodsy Owl’s birthday celebration on our Facebook page the month leading up to the event. Some posts were event teasers and promos, and some were focused more on Woodsy himself and his messages,” added Schostak.

“Given the circumstances of the pandemic, there isn’t anything we’d do differently. Had we been pre-COVID, we probably would have planned a one-day event with our mascot present for pictures and hugs, birthday cake for all, and lots of party activities led by rangers. Although that would have been fun, we’ve pulled off the next best thing and it actually allowed for more visitors and people from nearby communities to participate,” O’Donnell concluded.