Unlike last year’s dismal weather, attendees of the second annual Polk Township Environmental Day had a beautiful, sunny first day of October to enjoy the free activities.

“We have had a big turnout, more groups participating than last year and nice weather today,” said Nancy Wright, vice chairwoman of the Polk Township Parks and Recreation Commission.

The Monroe Future Farmers of America had a John Deere tractor on display, an obstacle course with pumpkins, hay bales and spider’s web to navigate through, and items for sale including baked goods, plants and snacks.

“What I like about FFA is that there are so many different opportunities to go out and do activities and teach people,” said Lindsay Mason, a sophomore at Pleasant Valley High School and member of Monroe FFA. “Today, I’ve seen different ideas from the various groups that we could use for our future activities.”

There was a free pumpkin patch where families could choose one pumpkin to take home. The committee purchased the pumpkins from Smale’s Farm Store for the event. The farm store also provided free sunflowers that attendees carried around the event.

There were various activities for kids to do throughout the event, including a tick-tack-toe board with mini white and mini orange pumpkins as the pieces, free apple cider to sip on, balls to kick around in the grass and face painting.

Kids and adults could go inside the wire fencing of a petting zoo containing pigs, ducks, goats, sheep, bunnies, turtles and chickens from Party Animals Express in Green Lane.

Along part of the gravel path of the walking park, there were many organizations under canopies. Volunteers and staff members led activities and handed out materials.

Carolyn Lange, of Aquashicola/Pohopoco Watershed Conservancy, had a model of a general watershed.

“I am showing how when it rains, it takes silk earth disturbance from land development, and chemicals from our cars, for example, and it goes right into our water. It shows the importance of buffer plants and trees,” she said.

Her model included tiny cars, trees, waterways, a piece of farmland and roads.

Members of the Monroe County Garden Club had a bead bracelet craft, plates of snack items like pretzels, M&M’s and licorice to turn ordinary Oreos into ones that looked like spiders, and balloon animals that Clarissa the Clown made for children.

Attendees could also learn about astronomy and safely view the sun with telescopes.

“We had a lot of people coming by here to look at the sun and I’m showing them the difference between the types of telescopes,” said Claudio T. Stabile, from Astronomy in the Community.

He showed attendees the SolarMax III hydrogen alpha telescope, which is a sponsorship from the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project, and a 10-inch Dobsonian with a white light filter. He recently built an astronomy observatory, which houses telescopes and other equipment, at the Polk Township North Field for his Eagle Scout project.

His sister, Ava Stabile, demonstrated insect and plant biology with several optical and digital microscopes. She is in the process of proposing a Girl Scout gold project, where microscopes and tabletop telescopes could be borrowed from a local library using one’s library membership card.