The Rouge River Water Festival is designed to help elementary students learn about our most precious natural resource- clean, fresh water. This free event will help students appreciate the importance of water and how it impacts their daily lives. It also provides students with hands-on activities to help them understand environmental stewardship and explore connections with their local watershed. The festival is a collaboration coordinated by the Oakland County Water Resource Commissioner’s Office and Cranbrook Institute of Science and is funded by Pure Oakland Water.
This year the 23rd Annual Rouge River Water Festival will be held September 16th-19th, 2025. Registration is free and open to 4th and 5th grade classes in the Rouge River Watershed.
If you are a 4th or 5th grade teacher in the Rouge River Watershed interested in bringing your class to this year's water festival, please register here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RRWFteachers25
If you are an environmental educator and are interested in registering your organization to present on one or multiple days, please let us know!
If you have any questions regarding the event please contact Lizz Parkinson, Head of the Freshwater Forum, at eparkinson@cranbrook.edu.
Rouge River Water Festival 2025- Volunteer Information
Interested in volunteering at the Rouge River Water Festival? Volunteer guides are essential for keeping this free program running!
As a guide, you will be paired with a visiting school to help guide them between programs and stick to their schedule. Guide duties include:
- Leading a class to their four different water festival presentations
- Introducing yourself and welcoming the teacher and their class to the water festival
- Explaining that they are here to have FUN learning about the Rouge River Watershed
- Helping to keep presenters and classes on time (not arriving or leaving programs too early or late)
- Arranging restroom breaks with the teacher in between programs
- Encouraging classes in transit to be quiet during presentations
- Promoting classes to walk and use sidewalks (when outside)
- Bringing teachers back to the registration tent before they depart to pick up their swag for themselves and their students an to return their clipboards
- Guiding classes to their lunches at the end of their visit (if your class is staying to eat)
Volunteer guides will be provided with a water festival t-shirt, swag, and are welcome to the breakfast and lunch that will be available at no cost in Reflections Café each morning and afternoon.
If you are interested in volunteering, please register at the link below.
Based on the day you are registered to volunteer, your arrival and departure time will vary, but will fall between 8:00 am and 12:30 pm. Each volunteer is asked to attend a morning orientation where you will be shown all areas of the museum and grounds where you will guide your class, as well as important locations such as restrooms and emergency exits. If you are volunteering multiple days, you only need to attend orientation on your first day. The registration tent will open at 8:00am each morning.
Additional Questions? Know of an organization that might be interested in providing volutneers? Please email Jimmy Bovee.