Splash pads and cooling centers: how Coloradans are keeping cool

"Hot!" baby Wesley Hennessy cried out.  

"It is hot!" his mother, Tuesday Hennessy, agreed. 

Monday's heat sent them and other Colorado families to the water. 

"I think anybody who can find water is gonna be in a pool or getting wet today," Hennessy said.

"In the middle of it, there's like a big pool and I was like, splashing in there," her other son, Owen, said.

"I've been splashing some on my sister's body," said 5-year-old Phyla Eggers. "She says, 'hey! Who splashed me?'" 

Splash pads, like the one at Ray Ross Park in Lakewood, provide fun and much-needed relief.

"I like to run through it to cool down," Owen said.

"Once a body gets overheated, it's very very difficult to cool us down. So people should be staying in the shade, monitoring their own symptoms, drink lots of water, even if you don't feel thirsty," said Bob McDonald, executive director of the Denver Department of Public Health. 

Denver is activating cooling centers at recreation centers across the city, focusing on underserved areas, and reaching out to the unhoused. 

"It's really an issue of equity," said McDonald. "Not everybody has an opportunity to turn on their air conditioner, to open their windows or what have you."

According to public health experts, the kids have the right idea. 

"The time to act is when you're not feeling that way to get that break from the heat even if you don't feel that you need it," said McDonald. 

"Its the hot sun and it hot out and we get to go in the pool," said Eggers. 

As of noon Monday, Denver said they had no one use one of their 30 recreation centers as a cooling center. The city reevaluates activation of those cooling centers every day based on conditions. The decision of if they'll stay open through Tuesday or not will be made by that morning. But, Denver says they will never turn someone away from a city facility if they need to cool off, even if those centers aren't activated.