Kids and families made their way to the Botanical Center in Rock Island, Illinois for some pre-Halloween fun.
Saturday and Sunday, October 17 and 18, 2015 was the Pumpkin Extravaganza which included a zombie obstacle course and mad scientist experiments.
Assistant gardener Kate Mapes said they set up activities that would help get kids into the Halloween spirit, but that wouldn’t be too scary. Kids got to walk through the maze and have “zombies” try to get in their way, and also play with some experiments like baking soda and vinegar explosions.
“Our mission here is bringing people and plants together in fun and meaningful ways, so a big part of that is education and so we like to do things for our members,” said Bates, “we have a lot of families and a lot of people with kids and we like to give them a safe place to come and enjoy being with their children and having that family time.”
Bates also said the event gave kids who don’t have much access to a yard, fields, trees, or other aspects of nature, a chance to get out and enjoy the day.
