Free event at WKU offering games, activities, education
Children will take center stage Thursday, when Community Education has Stand for Children Day from 9:30 a.m. to noon at Western Kentucky University’s South Lawn.
About 50 nonprofit agencies, businesses and government organizations will promote the services they make available to kids in the area, providing games and activities for kids and materials for their parents.
The 11th annual local Stand for Children Day is a culmination of a week of activities designed to raise awareness among parents of the community’s kid-friendly assets.
The local event, which has a theme of “Bee Amazing,” is an offshoot of the national Stand for Children organization, a citizen’s advocacy group that focuses on education reform.
“The national (Stand for Children) organization has been more politically focused, which I understand when it comes to lobbying and working with congressmen on certain issues, but we want to point out the assets we have,” said Anne Grubbs, enrichment and volunteer coordinator for Community Education.
To that end, Thursday’s event will feature music, games and entertainment.
Past Stand for Children Day events promoted children’s issues such as literacy, safety and health.
On Thursday, agencies there will point out to parents the resources they can make available to help children be amazing, Grubbs said.
Community Education has also promoted a scavenger hunt called “Get Up and Go” in which kids follow clues to find certain area landmarks and tourist attractions, filling up a crossword puzzle with the answers.
Those puzzles will be turned in at the event and entered into a drawing for prizes such as gift certificates and books.
Grubbs said the puzzle cards had been placed in the Bowling Green Public Library, American Bank and Trust and other sponsoring businesses near the end of last month.
Library director Lisa Rice, a member of the planning committee for Stand for Children Day, said the event typically attracts between 800 and 1,000 kids.
“We just want the community to know how much support there is for parents and grandparents who are raising children,” Rice said.
The library is promoting an on-site Thursday scavenger hunt, with kids being challenged to find nine book covers hidden at each of nine booths set up on the South Lawn.
Kids who fill up their cards can turn those in and become eligible for a prize drawing for coupons and gift certificates to area restaurants and for children’s books.
If rain cancels the event, the event will be at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
Story, Justin (2008, June). Agencies paying tribute to area’s children. Bowling Green Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/agencies-paying-tribute-to-area-s-children/article_11ca9b73-293c-5761-8afa-2fa35e497c04.html