Eight dinosaurs will roam Gwinnett County parks this summer as part of the Meet Me in the Park program.
Gwinnett County has a total of 50 parks, so explorers will need to follow the county Parks and Recreation department Facebook page and Instagram to locate which of the eight parks each dinosaur statue is located in.
When you find one, county officials encourage you to snap a selfie and share it on social media with the hashtag #MeetMeAtThePark.
The scavenger hunt will last throughout the summer and includes prehistoric favorites like the Pterodactyl, Stegosaurus and Daspletosaurus, as well as others. As to when they dinos will pop up, social media only teases that they'll be out "soon."
As the COVID-19 pandemic is not over just yet, parks officials urge explorers to follow CDC guidelines and practice social distancing.
The exhibit is courtesy of the "Meet Me at the Park Play Spaces" grant program, a collaboration between the National Recreation and Park Association and the Walt Disney Company. Agencies that submit the best ideas to encourage accessible outdoor play for children and families are awarded the grant.
Long time Gwinnett County residents may recognize the dinos as their prehistoric pals. The Gwinnett Daily Post reports the statues previously resided at The Paragon at Satellite, owned by NDI Development, but the agency didn't have a permit for their display. When the group applied for one, county commissioners denied the request, saying the dinos and other statues on the property were too much. The statues were removed in 2015 and the nine dinosaurs were donated by NDI Development to the county in 2018 specifically for the Meet Me in the Park grant.
Since the statues were donated, the grant supported the cost of moving the statues, constructing concrete bases and paved, accessible trails to the viewing areas, as well as signage with facts about each dinosaur, according to the National Recreation and Parks Association.
