Sharing pastimes at Prairie Days
Mike the Monarch was just one of dozens educating children and adults Sunday afternoon during Lombard's annual Prairie Days at Terrace View Park.
"It's great to see all these people show up with an interest in prairies," said Dave Lloyd, 49, of Brookfield who was dressed in black and donned huge, floppy, home-made monarch butterfly wings.
"I take every chance I can to inform people about potentially hazardous habitats so that monarch butterflies have a place to live," he said.
Hundreds of area residents visited Terrace View Park and took part in a hands-on fishing clinic, programs on prairie plants and bugs and children's games, arts and crafts. Food and music also jazzed up the park.
Don Barg of Lombard, who's been heading the fishing contests for three years, enjoyed watching people have fun.
"Spending a day with parents or grandparents is always better than being on Game Boy," he said jokingly.
Along with fishing and handling the pole, kids also learned there's a lot of life under the water.
"These are things I did as a kid, so I kind of like to pass them on," Barg said.
Carrie Rice of Lombard brought her grandson Dustin Moore, 11, to the festival.
She took Dustin around to make a kite, fish and planned to sign him up as a Cub Scout.
"The weather's beautiful, and he's having fun doing what he loves to do -- fish," Rice said.
To Dustin, it was more about spending quality time with his second mom.
"My day's going good," said the Glendale Heights resident. "It always goes good when I'm with her."