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White Lake recreation board eyes coordinated community calendar after low turnout at trails scavenger hunt
Summary
Committee members reported that a Feb. 14 Great State Trails Scavenger Hunt with ten educational stations drew low attendance. The board moved to build a community calendar and coalition with local businesses, shared a QR submission form, and reviewed sample event ideas including a proposed Star Party.
Committee Member Cathy F. Kinlaw reported to the White Lake Recreation Advisory Board on Feb. 26, 2026 that the Great State Trails Scavenger Hunt held Feb. 14 included ten educational stations along highways 53 and 701 on both the Great State Trails and the Mountains-to-Sea pathway, but that the event was not well attended.
Kinlaw suggested several possible reasons for the poor turnout—an allocated one-hour time slot, inclement weather, scheduling the event on Valentine’s Day, and possibly insufficient advertising—but the minutes do not provide specific attendance numbers. The board did not record a follow-up vote to change the scavenger-hunt format; members discussed broader promotion strategies instead.
Chairperson Erin Seiling presented a PowerPoint outlining the board’s goals for a 2026 community events calendar and urged building a coalition of local business owners to coordinate dates, avoid conflicts and cross-promote events for mutual benefit. Seiling shared a QR code to collect event submissions and temporarily recessed the formal meeting to allow a meet-and-greet and an open discussion among attendees; those notes were attached to the minutes as an addendum and are not part of the formal meeting record.
The board reviewed an example program concept for a 2027 Star Party that suggested partnering with Singletary Lake State Park and the Cape Fear Astronomical Society, inviting speakers and local media partners, and running family activities such as constellation story time and moon-phase crafts. The minutes list a detailed event submission form and emphasize that the planned community calendar will include festivals, tournaments, classes and other public events but will exclude political events and individual fundraisers.
The advisory board approved its prior meeting minutes earlier in the session and adjourned with its next meeting set for March 26, 2026.
