SOUTH BOISE, Idaho — If your child loves construction equipment, dirt piles and big machines, they may have the perfect weekend activity waiting for them in Boise.
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Dozer Day is returning to the Dennis Technical Education Center, giving kids the chance to climb into and operate more than 20 pieces of heavy equipment with guidance from professional operators.
For many children, it's an opportunity to get behind the controls of machines they usually only get to admire from afar.
Cooper Coates, a student at Dennis Technical Education Center who is volunteering at the event, says it gives kids a chance to discover new interests while having fun.
“It kind of gives them a peek of what they might like or what they might wanna do because some of them might like it, some of them might not, but even if they don’t like it, they still have fun here,” Coates told me.
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Organizers say the event is designed to combine education and entertainment, allowing families to explore a variety of activities beyond the heavy equipment.
“You’ve got the Les Schwab tire crawl, you’ve got a pipe crawl, a big slide, there’s a water table. United Rentals has their trench boxes set up with a zip line, so all kinds of fun activities to do,” Sheri Nowlan, executive director of the Northwest College of Construction, showed me.
Nowlan says the event serves a bigger purpose by introducing young people to new careers.
“It introduces kids to careers in the trades in the construction industry, gets them on a piece of equipment, gets them excited, and helps them just realize that that’s a viable career option to go into,” Nowlan said.
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Gideon Morton, a senior at Dennis Technical Education Center, says simply getting kids inside the equipment can leave a lasting impression.
“For the kids to be able to sit in one of these tractors and to run it and to, you know, just mess around with all the heavy equipment... It’s a really, really cool thing,” Morton said.
Dozer Day runs Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are available online and at the gate.
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