THE FRIENDS OF KINDER FARM PARK

The Friends of Kinder Farm Park was founded in October 1999 and was originally composed of four pioneers.  The Group first met in January 2000 and quickly developed a set of by-laws.  The group was and is made up of community volunteers.  Meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month in the Kinder Farm Park Visitor Center off of Jumpers Hole Road in Millersville, Maryland.  The Friends Group is a 501C (3) organization and is associated with the Anne Arundel County regional park known as the Kinder Farm Park. 

 Kinder Farm Park is located in central Anne Arundel County, Maryland within close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay.  The park is on 288 acres and was purchased by the county in 1979 from the original owners, the Kinder Family, who operated a typical Maryland farm from 1898 to the late 1970’s when it was no longer farmed.  The farm was primarily operated as a cattle farm after World War II.  The county believed the farm could be restored as it had been in the 1930’s and it has been designed to represent a 1930’s depression era farm.

The purpose of the Friends Group is to support the Farm Park with funding and to conduct volunteer activities to highlight a typical working farm set in Maryland during the 1930’s.  Due to the unique nature of Kinder Farm Park, the Kinder Friends Group is unique in both the activities it supports as well as the causes for which it seeks funding. The region clearly is well served by having such a Farm Park open to both county and non-county visitors. 

 The educational aspect of the Farm Park is endless.  It is against this backdrop that the Friends Group came into existence and its’ very purpose is to support and fund farm activities and programs.  This then is the unique nature of both the Kinder Farm Park and the Friends Group.

The Friends Group provides guidance and oversight to the Kinder Farm Park Superintendent and his staff (Park management) concerning the types of activities, projects and programs the Park should sponsor in order to educate and entertain citizens regarding a 1930’s depression-era farm. Other guidance which the Friends Group provides includes what the objectives and cost of proposed projects and activities will be requirements for carrying out these activities, and funding sources.  The Friends Group publicizes what farm activities (including educational programs) are being offered, when and how the public can participate, and how the public can assist the Friends Group.

There is and will continue to be a huge demand for a twenty-first century urban society to learn more about America’s agrarian society of the early twentieth century. The majority of farms in this region were truck farms that provided most of the produce and dairy products to the urban centers of Baltimore and Washington. The activities the Friends Group sponsor depict what life was like for farm workers and their families – including both farm techniques and the many associated activities which made these people independent and self-sustaining. In most instances, farm related programs and activities are not available for an urban society to readily partake in.  Therefore the products and services offered at Kinder Farm Park are pretty much unique along the Eastern Seaboard.  Considering 75 years ago society in this region was still predominantly agrarian, there are very few opportunities offered today for Americans to experience life firsthand on a 1930’s farm.  

Since there are very few farm parks in the Baltimore-Washington area, there are great demands for hands-on learning activities and educational programs associated with a farm from yesteryear.  Because of the unique nature of Kinder Farm Park, the activities that the Friends Group supports and will be supporting are different than any other park in the County and, with one or two exceptions, unique to the entire metropolitan region.  The kinds of activities that are demonstrated and carried out in this Park and supported by the Friends Group have unlimited educational value for young and old, residents and non-residents, and people of all educational levels and socio-economic groups.  These activities are educational but also of immense interest and should be fun and entertaining as well. 

The Farm Park draws visitors from throughout the metropolitan area and from neighboring states.  Currently, Park attendance is over 260,000 visitors per year and has shown significant increases each year.  Kinder Park attendance is the second largest of all Anne Arundel County Parks.  The Park already has been the host of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration, which is national in scope and of several years’ duration.  It is not unreasonable to expect that visitors to Kinder Farm Park may come from all over the Nation and occasionally from foreign countries as well.  It is its uniqueness that will draw these visitors from far distances.  The quality of the programs and activities offered at Kinder is what attracts visitors in large numbers from far and wide.

Please be aware that the Friends of Kinder Farm Park is not a grant organization.  There are times when the Friends Group financially supports certain projects that we deem an improvement to Kinder Park and in keeping with the theme of the Park.  Each project that we have supported are considered on their own merit and voted upon by the Board of Directors.