Whether it’s for work or play, the theme in Dewey Beach this weekend is: Get outside. The community is hosting a number of events aimed at making the town more beautiful and making its visitors more healthy.

In celebration of National Kids to Parks Day, the town of Dewey Beach is offering free kite flying and skim boarding demonstrations on the beach at Dagsworthy Avenue, on Saturday, May 19.

The nationwide event was created last year by the National Park Trust to boost park attendance while battling a rising obesity rate.

As of May 8, 228 mayors in 45 states agreed to participate in the event. “We want to encourage children across the country to get outdoors and have fun,” said Dewey Beach Mayor Diane Hanson.

Rehoboth Beach Toy and Kite Company, located on Rehoboth Avenue, will provide kite demonstrations and lessons from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Single-lines kites and stunt kites will be available.

Alley Oop, located on New Orleans Avenue in Dewey Beach, will hold three 40-minute skim lessons at 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1:15 p.m.

Registration is available on the beach the day of the event, and each clinic will allow 30 participants.

Corey Mahoney, owner of Alley Oop, said Hanson approached him about participating in Dewey Beach’s celebration of National Kids to Parks Day. “We’re glad to be a part of it,” he said.

Mahoney opened Alley Oop skim boarding camp more than 10 years ago. He said the shop regularly runs skim boarding clinics at Delaware Seashore State Park. “We feel like it fits in well with this because it’s a great exercise for kids,” Mahoney said.

Skim boarding requires running and helps kids improve balance and coordination, Mahoney said. It’s also a less traditional sport for kids to try, he said. “Just to show kids there’s other options when they’re on the beach,” he said.

For the less adventurous, Dewey Beach Civic League will hold its annual Town Beautification Day, Saturday, May 19. League members and volunteers will throw on their gardening gloves and clean up the Life Saving Station, Town Hall and Route 1 median and the area near Fifer’s Orchard, where the league holds its annual holiday tree-lighting each winter.

Community group Friends of Dewey decided to lend a hand to the civic league this year, and as part of Town Beautification Day, the group is giving one town park a facelift. Friends of Dewey will donate labor and materials to make repairs to Sunset Park, located on the bay at Dagsworthy Avenue.

Mark Allen, one of the group’s founders, said he and his wife, Friends of Dewey co-founder Denise Campbell, live across the street from the park. Allen said he noticed the park had fallen into disrepair in the last few years.

He said the group plans to fix broken and rotted pieces of wood in the park fence, nature walkway and footbridge. “When we formed Friends of Dewey, one of the things we wanted to focus on was community service,” Allen said.

Town beautification will begin at 8:30 a.m., and volunteers are asked to bring sunscreen, a hat, gloves and lawn equipment. For more information, go to deweybeachcivicleague.org.

Delaware Seashore State Park will host an evening of stargazing at 8:30 p.m., Sunday, May 20. This program is $5 per participant and preregistration is required.

If the night sky is clear, participants will head out to the beach.

Participants are invited to bring a blanket and a pillow to enjoy this program lying down. If the sky is cloudy, the program will move indoors and use an interactive Stellarium to view the night sky and identify the constellations. It takes eyes up to 20 minutes to adjust to the dark, so flashlights should be left at home even if the program is inside.

The park will provide red lights to maintain night vision.

The Indian River Life-Saving Station Museum is 3.5 miles south of Dewey Beach.

For more information, or to register, call the Indian River Life-Saving Station Museum at 302-227-6991.

The Ninth Annual Horseshoe Crab & Shorebird Festival will take place in Milton and at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, May 26. This family-friendly, ecofriendly festival stretches from Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge to the historic center of the town of Milton.

The focus of the festival is on the natural bounty and wildlife found in the area, with the hope of awakening and strengthening appreciation of the environment. The festival offers many choices from art to science and nature education to family festival fun.

The fourth year for the Art of Nature art show and sale presented by the Milton Arts Guild will be a part of the festival and will showcase Milton artists and their view of the lovely Milton area. Located at 113 Union St., the exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day. Painting and photography will be on display and for sale.

The show is accessible from Union Street, entering by the Vintage Café, or by the entrance facing the park. Both entrances will have signs.

Saturday is festival day at Prime Hook as well. Nature lovers can begin at 8:30 a.m. with many activities at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge on Turkle Pond Road off Route 16 east of Route 1. Birding, photography, canoeing, beach walks, hayrides, birdhouse workshops and lots more will be presented by the naturalists at Prime Hook. A continuous free shuttle will connect with the center of Milton so visitors may enjoy all venues.

Memorial Park in the center of town will host a nature tent where everyone can learn something about crabs, birds, snakes, fish and more.

There will be music, arts and crafts vendors, boat rides on the Broadkill River and great food. One of the highlights each year has been the art tent where creativity and crabs actually work together. Adults and young people will have the opportunity to make something special from local natural resources. Young children can partake in the Horseshoe Crab Scavenger Hunt from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and enjoy Lions Club train rides all day. Activities in Milton will be held in Memorial Park behind the library.

The chamber is grateful to the following business sponsors for their support in bringing this festival to Milton once again: Sobieski Services; Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; Friends of Prime Hook; Bob Wiley & Son; Active Adults Realty; Forever Fit Foundation; Jack Lingo Realtor; Bayhealth Medical Center; Chardon Ltd.; Security Instruments; Best Ace Hardware; Short Funeral Services; Casablanca Design; H & R Block; Abodes LLC; Victoria’s Salon; Ellen Passman; Joan Martin Brown; and Beach Bumz Ltd. for the donation of horseshoe crab molts to be decorated at the festival.

Scheduled activities at Prime Hook begin at 8:30 a.m. For information or reservations call 302-694-8419. Activities in Milton begin at 10 a.m. in Milton Memorial Park and continue to 4 p.m. The festival is sponsored by the Milton Chamber of Commerce and Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. For more information, email chamber@historicmilton.com, call 302-684-1101 or go to www.historicmilton.com/events.