FREE Fishing Clinic, FREE Science Saturdays

The Shad Are Back This April at

Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center

Science Saturdays, Matinee Sundays and Shad Week events highlight

free family fun each weekend in April

PHILADELPHIA (March 4, 2011) – Have you ever wondered what kinds of fish call the Schuylkill River home? Join us for Shad Month at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center as April’s FREE educational programs highlight the American Shad and other fishy friends.

There are plenty of free family-friendly events to mark on your calendar this month. Shad Weekend is free and open to the public April 16-17. Events include a fishing clinic for all ages followed by a cooking demonstration on Saturday, April 16. Learn how to cook American Shad from either the Colonial or the Native American perspective as Heart to Hearth Cookery demonstrates 17th through 19th century cooking methods, practices, and recipes.

In addition to Shad Weekend, Science Saturdays are FREE and open to the public on April 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 from 2 – 4 p.m. at half hour intervals. Parents and children will get “schooled” on the types of fish that inhabit the river through interactive experiments by FWWIC educators at the Interpretive Center’s state-of-the-art lab. Guests will create colorful fish rubbings and prints and will also help solve a fishy mystery.

The Fairmount Water Works Sunday Movie Matinee will screen “Finding Nemo” each Sunday in April at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. in the Interpretive Center’s theater. This 2003 Disney classic features the voices of Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres and chronicles the underwater adventure of Marlin the clownfish in his search for his missing son Nemo.

The FWWIC will hold special programming on Earth Day Weekend, April 23-24.

 “Shad Month is back this year with fun for the whole family,” says Karen Young, director of FWWIC. “From our FREE fishing clinic to cooking demonstrations to Earth Day celebrations, there is something for everyone at the Interpretive Center this April.”

The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center is located at 640 Waterworks Drive in Philadelphia.  For information call 215-685-0723.

The Fairmount Water Works, the ideal location to learn more about the life in the river, was constructed in 1812 to pump water out of the Schuylkill River. Almost from the day the waterwheels began turning, the graceful neoclassical buildings and beautiful grounds made the place an international tourist attraction renowned for melding nature and technology. Today the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center is the Delaware River Basin's watershed education hub, offering visitors information about the impact of water on their daily lives and how they in turn impact their water supplies. Located off Kelly Drive in Philadelphia's East Fairmount Park, the Interpretive Center features a variety of hands-on, highly interactive exhibits including a live view of the Fairmount Dam fish way and a flyover of the Schuylkill River watershed. For more information, visit http://www.fairmountwaterworks.com/.

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