Celebration of Families provides free fun for local residents
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Celebration of Families, a one-day festival dedicated to promoting family values, will take place from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Third Street Park. This free event will have food and drinks, live entertainment and interactive games for people of all ages. Local agencies and organizations will provide activities, registration for summer programs for kids and information on services for families at their booths.The festival is part of the month-long Celebration of Families, which is spearheaded by Monroe County Step Ahead. “Monroe County Step Ahead is made up of youth and family-serving organizations in the Monroe area,” said Holly Bales-Hall, adult training manager for the Girl Scouts of Tulip Trace Council, one of the sponsoring organizations.She said Monroe County Step Ahead came together to show what family services and opportunities are provided year-round in Bloomington. This will mark the eighth year of the Celebration of Families festival. Liz Kirkland, children’s advocate for Middle Way House and Celebration of Families committee member, said the event started as a parenting conference.“We had a one-day workshop for parents,” she said. “We provided child care on site and had speakers come and talk to parents.”However, Kirkland said the workshop only reached about 100 families. She and other members of Monroe County Step Ahead brainstormed how to reach the community on a larger scale and came up with the month-long celebration as well as a parade and the festival.Monroe County Step Ahead chose April for the Celebration of Families because it is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.“With the parent workshops, originally, it was an education piece to prevent child abuse,” Kirkland said. “We decided to stay with the month of April to celebrate families.”At the festival Saturday, there will be booths from local churches, synagogues and Girl Scouts, along with many other organizations. Entertainment will include local bands, choirs, magic acts and clowns. Various characters, such as Clifford the Dog, Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants might make an appearances as well.The first 300 people at the event will receive goodie bags filled with pencils, snacks, stuffed animals and books, along with more information on various family and child services.Bales-Hall said she highly recommends IU students attend the festival if they have the opportunity. “It is an excellent way to see what is in Bloomington and learn more about the community and what agencies are serving the population,” she said.Kirkland said students might not be aware of what Bloomington has to offer, and the Celebration of Families gives them a good opportunity to interact with the community.“We want to bridge the gap between the campus and the community,” she said.Bales-Hall said there is always a large number of attendees. She said the Bloomington community is very supportive of the Celebration of Families.“I feel that showcasing what people can access in this community is really important,” she said.