Hundreds gather for Take It Outside Celebration..

The phrase “Take It Outside” isn’t always a good thing, but on Sunday it took on a new meaning.

Several Salinas based Organizations held the third annual Take it Outside Celebration to encourage families to power down the screens and enjoy the outdoors. “We stay inside, we’re in school all day or an work all the time and we don’t realize how important it is to be outside and communing with our families and our parks and our friends and neighbors,” says lead organizer Leti Hernandez.

An estimated 500 people attended this year. There was food, music, performances and different activities. Salinas resident, Arthur Butron, says he brought his kids to show them the importance of some fun in the sun. “I myself find physical activity one of my top priority in life and that’s something I really want to emphasize with my own children.”

Butron says in an age where kids can be consumed by screens, he wants his boys to know better, “cell phones and video games and tablets are the norm, and it’s just a way to pacify children and I want something better for them. I want them to be in tune with themselves physically, mentally, spiritually.”

And while the event celebrated the outdoor areas Salinas has to offer, it also looked towards the future.

The Big Sur Land Trust, one of the sponsoring organizations, recently bought 73 acres of land at Carr Lake. They plan to turn that land into a community park and want input from Salinas residents. “We’re hoping to create a community based vision. for a new park by the end of this year. Then we will be looking to build further community support overtime, raise the funding it will need to create the park and we really want the community to have a lot of input and say in what that park looks like,” says Rachel Saunders with the Big Sur Land Trust.

Organizers plan to have several community meetings about the project to get more feedback about the Carr Lake Park Project.