BY ANNA FROST

STAFF WRITER

Homer kids and adults spent an afternoon wading in the mud on July 17, finding relief from temperatures that reached the high 60s. The 2016 Mud Wallow at Cottonwood Park honored the late-Carmen Field, who helped found Nature Rocks.

The muddy Homerites gathered at the wallow stayed in the mud past 3 p.m., when the event was supposed to end.

Field facilitated the Mud Wallow along with Homer resident Lisa Matlock as a way to get kids outdoors instead of on a couch or in front of a screen.

Field took the idea of the mud wallow to the national Children and Nature Network Conference and presented the idea, said Sue Post. As a result of her presentation, mud wallows have now spread to several other states.

A longtime environmental educator who taught everyone from children to seniors, and everywhere from outdoors to the classroom, Field was honored with the Alaska Conservation Foundation’s Jerry Dixon Award for Excellence in Environmental Education. She died May 31, 2016, at the age of 53. She received word the day before her death that she would get the award.

Sophie Williams treks through the mud to get to the side of the pit at the 2016 Mud Wallow on July 17.

Kevin Wilmet and his daughter Dee Wilmet bask in the mud pit at the 2016 Mud Wallow at Cottonwood Park on July 17.

Homer kids and adults wade in the mud on July 17, finding relief from the warm temperatures that reached the high 60s. The 2016 Mud Wallow at Cottonwood Park honored Carmen Field, who helped found Nature Rocks and facilitated the Mud Wallow along with other Homer residents as a way to get kids outdoors.