Licking County’s outdoor and indoor venues provide family-friendly fun for all ages
“There’s nothing to do” is a phrase seldom heard in Licking County.
On sunny days, some head out to the many recreation sites in the Licking Park District system, or maybe they swing by the William C. Kraner Nature Center. Others lace up their skates at the Lou and Gib Reese Ice Arena or strip down to trunks at CoCo Key Water Resort. Meanwhile, the more scholarly set heads downtown to The Works for an afternoon of interactive learning.
When it comes to chilly fun, professionals and novices alike enjoy the many amenities at the ice arena, which recently received more than $1 million in improvements and is now home to hockey teams, figure skating classes, curling competitions and much more.
“We have things to do for anybody age 3 on up,” says Jamie Baringer, general manager. “We begin our learn-to-skate classes at that age, and those go all the way up to adult. We also have about 150 people of all ages in our hockey leagues.”
The arena’s open-skate events, which are held weekdays at noon, after school on Thursdays, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons, are hugely popular as well.
“The families have really gotten in on those,” Baringer says. “We have about 200 people on the weekends, families who like to get some physical activity together and also learn or get better at a sport that can last a lifetime.”
The arena also partners with the USA Hockey Association and the Columbus Blue Jacket Foundation to bring in area schoolchildren for two-hour field trips. Around 1,200 children a year learn about the science of ice making, how the arena operates and how the ice is prepared for play.
The water’s a good bit warmer and the spills less painful over at the CoCo Key Water Resort, a 50,000-square-foot indoor water park at Cherry Valley Lodge. The park’s free to guests, and visitors can get passes based on availability.
If the goal is to stretch those mental muscles, then an afternoon in the wood or print shops, art gallery, glass-blowing studio or various labs at The Works, a downtown center for history, art and technology, is time well spent indeed. The museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, continues to add programming and activities for everything from science and invention to arts and crafts classes.
Back outside, the county’s other parks and recreation options include the Heath Municipal Pool with its “lazy river” and water slides, as well as the half-million-gallon Hollander Pool, which also has water slides along with a playground and shelter house; baseball and softball at several park complexes; and even the Newark Rotary Club’s Accessible Playground, 14,500 square feet of rubber surface that’s designed for children of all physical abilities to use.
“People always take advantage of the parks and all the activities there, from hiking to Frisbee golf to bird watching,” says Karissa Cooper, public information specialist for the Licking Park District. “And families really like programs like the annual Easter egg hunt, which includes the Dino Dig at the Kraner Nature Center.”
The district’s year-round offerings include everything from drive-through haunted parks in October to horse-jumping events and mountain-man reenactments during the warmer months. It also puts on an annual Junior Naturalist Adventures summer day camp, which has proven to be a hit with parents and kids alike.
