| "Returned survey cards indicate that nearly 90 percent of those playing the Bay Game will do something to help the bay as a result of what they learned while playing." | |
| Alexis Grant, Maryland Department of Natural Resources |
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Keeping restless children occupied on long trips can take the fun out of any parent's vacation. Maryland coastal resource managers have developed a car game that not only keeps kids of all ages entertained, but also integrates environmental, historical, and cultural information.
"This has been very successful from the get-go," says Alexis Grant, special projects coordinator for the Public Communications Office of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "We estimate that nearly four million people have enjoyed or seen the Bay Game in the past four years. Returned survey cards indicate that nearly 90 percent of those playing the Bay Game will do something to help the Bay as a result of what they learned while playing."
The Maryland Bay Game was created in 1997 as the result of an intergovernmental, public/private collaboration. Grant says the game is designed to be played during the two-and-one-half-hour car trip from the tollbooth at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, where the games are distributed free to requesting motorists, to the state's top summer vacation spot, Ocean City. New game books are created each year, and are distributed from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
The award-winning game uses the characters Ol' Blue, Betty Lou, and Baby Blue to lead kids from "3 to 93" through a variety of activities, explains Grant. Players are challenged to look for specific bay-related items, such as an "osprey nest or the waterway that Harriet Tubman crossed to help free the slaves."
Temporary signs marking the sites where the items can be found are installed along the roadway by the State Highway Administration. When the players see the signs, they take stickers from the 24-page game book and place them on the corresponding page, where they will find information about the site, and related activities such as pictures to color, crossword puzzles, "Stump the Grownups Bay Trivia," and more. Another activity requires finding rivers and streams (Chesapeake Bay tributaries) crossed during the trip on a map.
Throughout the game book there are conservation tips from Ol' Blue. Grant says more than 2,000 children have sent in forms documenting that they have completed two activities to help protect the bay in order to join the "Ol' Blue Buddy Club."
"It's making a difference," Grant says. "This is a fun and creative way to get people interested and curious about the natural resources of our state. Every year we receive hundreds of requests from parents, students, teachers, and curious folks from across the globe for Bay Games."
She says the keys to the game's success have been having a specific entry point to the state's highest-traveled vacation route where the games can be distributed, and the support of the multi-organizational partners and sponsors.
"Anybody with a little bit of creativity could come up with something like this, whether it be the Puget Sound or the Intercoastal Waterway of the Carolinas," she advises. "The most important thing to remember is that you've got to make it fun."
For more information about the development of the Maryland Bay Game, contact Alexis Grant at (410) 260-8016. To request copies of the game, e-mail agrant@dnr.state.md.us. To find an on-line version of the game, point your browser to www.dnr.state.md.us/baygame/.
