NASHUA, N.H. — The Nashua Parks and Recreation Department kicked off its SummerFun series Saturday with the Superheroes in the Park event at Greeley Park. Hundreds of families turned out for free activities and to meet the people who keep the city running through public works.
“This department has the most daily contact with residents. They are our superheroes, doing the work of the city every day, and this event is a way for us to get better known by our residents,” said Lauren Beyer of the Recreation Department.
Parks and Recreation, along with the Engineering, Solid Waste, Streets and Wastewater departments, hosted information tables. About two dozen local vendors and five food trucks were on hand to connect with attendees.
It was an all-hands-on-deck day for the Division of Public Works. In addition to Parks and Recreation staff who manage events like this, staff from each department in public works greeted residents, handed out goodies to kids and explained their roles in keeping the city operating.
Parks and Recreation’s goal is to present free family fun, and the event delivered. The department gave away lightsabers, capes, masks and ice cream, and treated the crowd to a performance of the Superhero Experience Show.
More than 300 inflatable lightsabers were handed out, and wave after wave of kids joined in the Jedi Saber Training & Demonstration. The small but mighty Jedi recruits smiled and laughed through their encounter with “the force.”
A big feature of the day was the “Touch-a-Truck” experience. A fleet of city vehicles and their crews were on hand for kids and families to explore. Garbage trucks, a boom truck, a street sweeper, a tractor and an industrial-scale lawn mower were all on display.
Taking the hands-on truck theme literally, public works staff applied paint to children’s hands and invited them to add their handprints to the blade of a city snowplow. Next winter, residents may spot a plow rolling by with hundreds of colorful handprints on it.
Vendors offered free crafts. The bounce balls drew a steady crowd, and bubble machines filled the air with soapy orbs. Patches the Clown drew the longest line of the day at her balloon-animal booth.
Parks Department program specialist Eric Menard led the team that organized and presented the event.
“We are very happy with the turnout,” Menard said. “We’ve had this event formally named Opening Day in the past, as the first event of our SummerFun series. Last year we introduced the superhero aspect, and we got very positive feedback about it, so we decided to really hammer that in and market Superheroes in the Park.”
This was the first event in this year’s SummerFun series. Along with weekly concerts on Tuesday nights at the Greeley Park bandstand, the department will present the July Fourth fireworks, the Fairy Tale Festival and Wings and Wheels. For complete details, visit the Parks and Recreation page on the city’s website.
