By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Not a small prize. That’s how Kansas Wetlands Education Center Director Curtis Wolf describes the giveaway planned for the winner of the Summer Explorer Guide contest. Though the 2026-27 school year is just around the corner, the KWEC just northeast of Great Bend has continued its educational programming throughout the summer. Friday, Aug. 14 will be an important day at the center with the deadline for Summer Explorer Guide entries and a meteor watch party.
“We’ve been giving out a ton of our Summer Explorer Guides,” Wolf said. “We put together, it’s about a 12-page little booklet that has all sorts of activities you can do at the Education Center; there are some you have to go outside for, you can do some of them at home. The idea is to take one of these little booklets, fill out the information, have fun doing it, then bring it back to us.”
A lucky winner will be drawn from all the entries turned in. A prize will be tailored to the winner with items from the KWEC gift store.
“The thing is, we’ve given out a ton of these this summer, and we have almost none that have returned their entry,” said Wolf. “We are going to draw for this on Aug. 14. If you’ve gotten one of these, and you’ve been able to put some time into filling out even most of it, bring it back in and get that entry put into the drawing.”
Also this Friday at KWEC is the Rocket Revolution – Perseid Meteor Shower Watch Party from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. The highlight of the evening will be seeing the meteors flash across the sky, but plenty of other events are planned, including the inflatable planetarium from Fort Hays State University. The Kansas Organization for Space Modeling, a model rocket group, will also do two launches.