A FREE COMMUNITY EVENT THAT GETS FAMILIES OUTSIDE FOR A CHANGE

Featuring performances by well-known musical artists including The Verve Pipe, Randy Kaplan, Hug Trees, Heidi Swedberg, Mike Schmid, David Tobocman and Rhythm Child

Building upon the success of last year's Kids ROCK, The Children's Nature Institute (CNI) in association with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (NHM) present Kids ROCK -- a full day of outdoor music and eco fun for the entire family.  In addition to an amazing line up of the hottest kindie music artists, there will be a wide array of hands-on activities to teach young children and their families about environmental awareness including eco arts & crafts booths, a vegan chocolate workshop, and opportunities to interact with live animals and insects.  Kids ROCK will take place on Sunday, June 10, 2012 from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm at Hancock Park, positioned between the highly trafficked LACMA and La Brea Tar Pits.

Originally inspired by the lack of green spaces in LA’s low-income communities and CNI’s work with inner-city kids who had never traveled outside a 10 mile radius of their community, Kids ROCK has grown to become a premier “green” cultural event that puts entire families in touch with nature in an urban environment.

At Kids ROCK, child friendly entertainment that appeals to the whole family will fill this ideal urban nature setting with energizing and ambient sounds.  The La Brea Tar Pits is a hub for families with young children to literally unearth the wonders of the natural environment, and the proximity to LACMA is a natural fit to the plethora of arts activities that will take place throughout the day. 

In addition to NHM’s bug performers, CNI’s dazzling and colorful WonderMobile will bring live animals that visitors of all ages can touch and hold.  Cool activities such as seed planting, face painting, and the Dino Dig keep kids of all ages "edu-tained" all day long.  The Kogi Truck, Let’s Be Frank, Deano’s Deli Truck, The After School Special Truck, and other healthy food vendors will serve up nutritious and delicious fare.  Kids ROCK will bring together many other environmental education partners including the National Park Service, reDiscover Arts, Tree People, The Southwestern Herpetological Society and others who will help to spread the message of getting outdoors and getting connected to the care of our earth.

"Kids ROCK represents a synergy between nature and art, art and sustainability,” remarks Kelly Decker, Executive Director of CNI. “It’s a way to get people away from their computers, out of their cars and into nature, or better still, a way to bring nature to them."

CNI is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity that improves academic performance and inspires environmental stewardship through direct experiences with nature, and is the only organization in Los Angeles that focuses exclusively on environmental education for young children during their most impressionable years: birth through age eight. For 27 years, CNI has been at the forefront of the movement to get children outside to learn and explore and in so doing, care about the environment. Since then, the organization has served more than 300,000 children, their parents and teachers in the Greater Los Angeles Area. CNI’s focus is on reaching disadvantaged children in undeserved communities to share with them the wonder of nature as a tool for personal growth, academic achievement and community building.

Kids ROCK is made possible by the generous support of Wells Fargo Bank, The Boeing Company, Cuties Juice, Macy’s, Clif Kid, Urban Sitter, Healthy Family Brands, Scout Ideas, Spud.com and Judy & Arnie Fishman.

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