Sunday, April 20, 2008

Itty Bitty Kiddie Festival

My work hosts an annual family resource fair. The big event was yesterday and boy was it great. Shawn came and volunteered, too. He manned the pizza and drinks table, which was a good fit for him. It was that or dress up in one of the Pig mascot outfits and shake kids' hands all day! Just kidding, honey, I wouldn't make you do that!
I can't think of another event that compares to it, and I'm proud that my executive director at the Smart Start office demands that the event happen each year! It's a big expense but well worth it. Everyone, I mean everyone, like 1000 people, get free Dominoe's pizza and a drink. There's free sno-cones, free crafts for the kids, several magic shows, storytellers, and a balloon man. All for free. Canned food item at the gate actually. Oh, and three of those blow-up bounce house things.
What's neat is that the community is fairly small so I ended up recognizing many of the children and that made it easier to approach the parents about our free preschool program. This sort of thing happened many times, "Oh, there's Nicky, she's in Miss Meredith's class. I think she has a little brother. I'll go talk to the parents." Or "I know that child's in Katie's class, so she's taken care of." Meeting new families was great, but it was neat to realize that I already knew many families and knew whether or not their children were age-eligible for our program. It was a great day. Plus, I get the day off tomorrow because of it! Woohoo!

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