Pocatello’s Play Unplugged program kicks off

The Pocatello/Chubbuck area first announced its plans to run a Play Unplugged program in February. On Thursday, the program held a launch party to officially kick off. The launch party was held at the Mountain View Events Center in Pocatello.

Shannon Sudweeks, director of Play Unplugged, said they expected about 500 people to show up, but estimate they got at least 1,000 and she was pleased with the turnout.

At the launch party, all of the businesses who are participating were there. The kids could go around and get some free stuff, while learning what acitivty each business had selected for kids to earn a “brag badge.” Each of the 39 businesses, including local fire and police departments, have a different badge. The activities can include things like hiking, quilting, gardening, or monitoring smoke alarms to make sure they are working.

The goal of the program is just to keep kids active during the summer and try to focus them on other activities besides video games and television.

“There’s a hiking one and I really want to do the hiking one so I’m excited for that one,” said Zoe Hershey, a local fourth grader participating in Play Unplugged. “I like being outside and I like being active so this is really fun.”

“We are so excited,” Sudweeks said. “I can’t believe that today is here. We’ve been planning for it for months, actually a whole year. We almost tried to do this program last year but we weren’t ready so we wanted to do it right. So we gave ourselves the whole year to do it.”

Activities start June 2 and go through August 15. Kids can attach each badge they earn to a lanyard. Sudweeks said they gave out 6,900 lanyards beforehand and several more at the launch party. So they expect good participation.

For those who couldn’t make the launch party but would still like to participate, go to Pocatello’s Play Unplugged website for information on each badge and business.

Sudweeks said on Aug. 16 there will be a party to recognize all the participants.