Wizarding world awakes in Rotary Park

Come Alive Outside Executive Director Arwen Turner said the latter was modeled after the “muggle quidditch” invented at Middlebury College that went on to become an intermural sport.

“It will have some of the rules of quidditch, but made so children don’t have to understand all the rules to play it,” she said. “It’s simplified, and we’ll have water balloons because it’s summer, and it’s hot.”

Heritage Family Credit Union will operate a “Gringotts Bank,” Turner said, and on-site food trucks will offer Harry Potter-themed menus.

Organizer Sarah Cosgrove, who works with event co-sponsor Partners for Prevention, said the event was conceived during a similar, “Star Wars”-themed event earlier this year at Pine Hill Park.

“We had 400 people in the woods,” she said. “It was fantastic. People were asking when we were going to do another one of these. Arwen kind of threw it out ... we picked it up and ran with it.”

Cosgrove, who will be dressed as Professor Trelawny — the absent-minded seer played by Emma Thompson in the movies — said the event provides a much needed spin on the health fair.

“Traditional health fairs where we’re presenting information — they’re pretty boring,” she said. “If we can provide that health message to a lot of people at once while they’re doing a fun thing, let’s do that.”

Cosgrove said they snuck in messages through activities like a prevention trivia game incorporating a Harry Potter spinning wheel and mindfulness lessons during crafting.

Turner said Come Alive Outside will oversee a “Green Street Challenge,” during the Whoopie Pie Festival in August, laying down grass and sod on Center Street, and are once again distributing their summer passports, which encourage local young people to engage in outdoor activities in multiple sites around the county.

She said they’ve distributed 6,000 passports to area children and are seeing a participation rate of 40%.

gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com