January 2018 Highlights
Recreation. Preservation. Education.
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Holiday Hours
 
All regional parks and nature centers, neighborhood parks, and natural areas will be open on New Year’s Day, Monday, January 1, as well as on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 15 (except for Deerfield Island Park, which will be closed). The holiday gate fee of $1.50/person (children 5 and under free) will be in effect at applicable regional parks.
 
 
Support Your Parks
Ring in the New Year by supporting your parks on a leisurely bicycle ride through the Holiday Fantasy of Lights. The annual holiday drive-through light extravaganza reopens for one special night when Brandano Displays teams up with the Parks Foundation of Broward County for a Family Bike Thru the Lights, on Friday, January 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. The event, at Tradewinds Park & Stables (south side), includes other family activities, too, like food trucks, bounce house, games, and entertainment. The fee is $5 per bike (bring your own bike), and helmets are required for ages 16 and under. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Parks Foundation of Broward County, the official charitable 501 (c)(3) partner of the Broward County Parks and Recreation Division. For tickets, visit BrowardParksFoundation.org.
 
 
A Walk in the Wild
 
See Central Broward Regional Park & Stadium transformed into the spectacular Chinese Lantern Festival, a family-friendly holiday event, open Monday, January 1, and Wednesdays through Sundays, January 3-7 and 10-14. The closing night is Monday, January 15. Hours are 5:30 to 10 p.m.
The theme of this immersive experience into Chinese culture is “The Wild,” and the lantern displays include an assortment of beautiful creatures from around the world displayed as lanterns, which have been handcrafted by Chinese artists.
 
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Visitors will walk amid the lantern displays, watch live performances and listen to entertainment, try authentic Chinese cuisine, purchase handmade gifts by Chinese artisans, and more. Traditional folk artist demonstrations will also be available for an up-close look at clay sculpturing, cartoon portraiture, folk embroidery, Chinese knotting, inside painting, dough modeling, fabric art, paper cutting, and straw weaving. Children may also enjoy puppetry light shows and dinosaur rides.
 
For fees and additional information, visit the Chinese Lantern Festival. Central Broward is accessible via Broward County Transit Routes #18, #36, #40, #81, #19, 441 Breeze, Lauderhill #1, #5, #6, and #7, Lauderdale Lakes North and South.

 
Chip in to Help Parks
 
There are three types of people: those who can’t wait to get rid of their Christmas trees once the holidays have passed, those who leave their trees up well into the new year, and those who fall somewhere in between. One way or another, we’ve got you covered with our Chip-a-Tree initiative. The annual event runs from the day after Christmas (Monday, December 26 this year) through Martin Luther King Day (Monday, January 15).
 
The free program encourages Broward County residents to remove all decorations from their trees (no exceptions), then drop them off at a participating park for recycling. Last year we recovered more than 5,100 trees, or the equivalent of 357.72 metric tonnes, which probably would have otherwise ended up in landfills. That amount accounted for 15 percent of Broward Parks' greenhouse gas reduction efforts for all of 2016. The chipped trees are used for landscaping throughout our park system.
 
There’s a limit of two trees per vehicle; artificial trees are not accepted; and no commercial vehicles or garbage trucks are allowed. And remember, the regular weekend and holiday gate fee is never in effect for recyclers, so there’s no excuse not to do the right thing. Hours vary; call the park of your choice for details:

 

 

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Plantation Heritage Park Reopens

Hurricane Irma took down acres of unsafe and hazardous Australian pines – ranging from 150 feet to 300 feet tall – in Plantation Heritage Park. All of the trees are now removed and the park will be safe to reopen to the public on Wednesday, January 3, 2018 – a great start for the new year! The first event will be on Tuesday, January 9, when the Family Night With Food Trucks resumes its weekly Tuesday schedule from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Thanks to all of our patrons for your patience and understanding.

For more information, call the park at 954-357-5135. Plantation Heritage is accessible via Broward County Transit Route #30.


Sundays in the Park

Whether you’re in northern, central, or southern Broward County, there will be free music in a park setting at three of our nature centers this month. On Sunday, January 14, Fern Forest Nature Center in Coconut Creek will host its monthly Dan Barrow Memorial Bluegrass Jam, from 2 to 4 p.m. A week later, on Sunday, January 21, the nature center will also present one of its occasional Twilight Jammin’ acoustic sessions, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Then, on Sunday, January 28, you’ll have two choices: From 1 to 4 p.m., Secret Woods Nature Center in Dania Beach serves up its regular monthly Jamming in the Park acoustic session. And from 2 to 4 p.m., Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood, in conjunction with the Music Club of Hollywood, hosts another Music at the Mangrove concerts, this one featuring Mark Bornfield & D'Jaimes.

Anne Kolb (954-357-5161) is accessible via Broward County Transit Routes #4 and #12; Fern Forest (954-357-5198) via Routes #31 and #42; and Secret Woods(954-357-8884) via Route #6.
 
 
 
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Fit as a Fiddle

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to shed those few pounds you might have picked up over the holiday season, why pay for a gym membership when you can visit one of our seven outdoor fitness areas? All of these popular facilities are available free of charge to ages 14 and up during regular park hours. The regional parks’ regular weekend and holiday gate entrance fee of $1.50/person will be in effect.

Destination Fitness, at Reverend Samuel Delevoe Memorial Park (2520 N.W. Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale) in the Broward Municipal Services District, opened through a partnership with Broward Regional Health Planning Council and Health Foundation of South Florida.

Memorial Healthcare System teamed up the Parks and Recreation Division to open six Memorial Fitness Zones.​ Memorial Healthcare also offers free monthly workshops to show adults how to use the equipment to optimize workouts. Check with a park office, listed below, for dates and times.

And, of course, you can engage in those most basic of physical activities, walking and hiking, at any of our parks, nature centers, and natural areas. For more information, visit our Website at Broward.org/Parks.

 
 
The Parks Foundation of Broward County is a 501 (c) (3) organization founded in 2014 in support of Broward County Parks and Recreation Division. The foundation welcomes individual memberships and corporate partnerships at all levels to help promote our parks and programs, preserve our natural areas, and provide more green space for our community. Donations are accepted at BrowardParksFoundation.org.
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