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  • Derrick Miller/The Duncan Banner Ben Ketterlinus and Patrick Derichsweiler celebrate the first day of Spring by using the slide at the Simmons Center park.

    3-21 First Day of Spring1.jpg

  • Derrick Miller/The Duncan Banner Riley Pool gives Brooklyn Villarreal a piggy-back ride Wednesday at the Simmons Center park.

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March 21, 2013

Spring activities blossom at parks

Derrick Miller The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — For children who stayed in Duncan for Spring Break, the first day of spring didn’t disappoint.

As temperatures continued to warm up, many children took to the area parks for recreation. At Centennial Park, Patrick Derichsweiler and Ben Ketterlinus could be seen heading down a spiral slide, while their siblings made their rounds at the park.

Several groups made it out to the areas parks, including First Baptist Church daycare. The daycare group had about 20 children at Fuqua Park.

“They absolutely love it,” Micha Stanley, with First Baptist daycare, said. “It’s really good to get them out. They get the climbing out of their systems.”

Additionally, children enrolled in the Simmons Center Spring Break Camp were able to get out to Centennial Park. At one point, there were more than 20 children sliding, climbing and swinging throughout the park.

Camp counselor Sam Moffatt provided a piggyback rides to a few campers.

Stanley said the temperature was cooler when she and the other daycare workers took the students to Fuqua Park. She said several children had jackets on.

But as the day wore on, the temperatures increased.

“They’ve been wanting to get out,” Stanley said. “They have spring fever.”

The play area at Fuqua Park wasn’t the only portion of the park in use Wednesday afternoon. Several picnics were taking place a the concrete tables and various activities were using the grassy space around the gazebo.

Stanley said her children, who are preparing to enter pre-kindergarten, usually get some time outside. But they are usually more confined than at the park.

“This is more open,” she said.

Although warmer temperatures were present, the Weather Channel website is warning of potential precipitation, another result of spring. According to the website, there’s a 30 percent chance of isolated showers today and 30 percent of showers Saturday.

Temperatures are also expected to drop into the low 50s for the high this weekend, according to the website.

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