The gleaming faces of children could be witnessed along the Saratoga Spa State Park’s Geyser Creek on Wednesday, April 16, as kids littered the park’s landscape in order to take part in the Department of Environmental Conservation’s annual fish stocking event.

According to Spa State Park naturalist Alli Schweizer, the annual event has been taking place at Geyser Creek for more than 20 years. In the beginning, children were invited to help stock

Geyser Creek with brown and brook trout, but today it has turned into a much larger occasion that has become more about environmental conservation and educating children about the environment than it has about stocking the creek with trout.

“We try to educate the children as well as allowing them to help stock the creek, so over the years it has turned into a much larger event,” Schweizer said.

Each kid brings their own bucket to the event and receives one fish to put in the creek.

According to Schweizer, the annual event usually brings in around 1,000 people; however, this year she said they estimated a crowd of more than 1,500 had shown up.

“It’s truly a great spring-time activity,” Caroline Blake, one of the many parents in attendance, said. “It’s a good way to be involved with the community and to get outside and celebrate spring.”

Blake said she had been waiting in line with her two children, Lauren and Charlie, for over two hours, but she felt the wait was more than worth it. “You won’t see lines like this at Disney World,” Blake remarked.

DEC volunteer Bob Linden said he has been helping to stock the creek for more than 17 years.

The first year Linden volunteered to stock the creek, three men with their sons showed up to watch. Linden said each year more people are drawn to the annual fish stocking event and the families in attendance have inspired him to continue volunteering.

Nonetheless, Linden did have one fear on the day and that was running out of fish. “The DEC is only allowed to stock the creek with 650 trout and there seems to be more kids than fish this year,” Linden said.

Aside from helping to stock the creek, children were also given the opportunity to learn about the environment. Elliot Winn, 7, said he learned a lot about wildlife and ecology from a quiz he took at the 4-H Cloverbuds of Saratoga County display booth.

The 4-H Cloverbuds of Saratoga County is a program consisting of 10 kids who visit the state park each year in order to learn about wildlife and ecology. Kim Jacobs, co-leader of the 4-H Cloverbuds program, said the kids are extremely passionate about the environment and the event was a great chance for them to help educate other kids from the area about it.

“We really hope this event will help other kids grow a fondness and respect for the outdoors that they wouldn’t normally learn in school,” Jacobs said.

Sara Buchyaski, who brought her grandchildren to the event, said this was her and the children’s first year attending the annual event and she thought it was a fabulous way to help teach kids about saving the environment for future generations.

Buchyaski’s grandson, Tucker Lee, 12, said he learned a great deal about water pollution from a macroinvertebrate display that taught kids how to recognize bugs which in turn allowed them to identify whether water in the creek was clean or not.

There were a total of 13 display booths featured at the event including food and music for all to enjoy. Aside from environmental education displays other activities included wild animal and fly fishing demonstrations. The event was also a great opportunity for families in the community to get an early start at celebrating Earth Day, which occurs annually in the United States and throughout the rest of the world on April 22.

“I like to think of it as an Earth Day event although it’s a little early this year because it’s all about conservation and taking care of our creeks and waterways,” Schweizer said. “The entire event really seems to go nicely with the whole Earth Day theme.”

Other environmentally-oriented recreation opportunities available to the public by the Spa State Park include a Nature Walk and Doggy Earth Day at the Karner blue butterfly area on Sunday,

April 20 and a family hike and frogwatch are scheduled for Earth Day on Tuesday, April 22.

“What I really hope people took away from this event was a good time, an overabundance of sunshine and happiness for being outside and being together as a family,” Schweizer said.