Stand for Children Day honors kids, teaches safety

Bowling Green and Warren County Community Education is focusing on Safe Summer Fun for children as the theme for the sixth annual Stand for Children Day. The celebration will be from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Friday at Kereiakes Park on Cemetery Road. The first 500 children will receive free goodie bags.

The theme ties into the Bee Aware Coalition, which focuses on prevention of child abduction, said Anne Grubbs, enrichment and volunteer coordinator for Community Education.

Other local service providers will be available to teach children and youths how to be safe. There will be activity booths that will feature arts and crafts, relay races, storytime and entertainment, which will be provided by the Bowling Green Public Library’s Young Adult Storytelling Drama Troupe. Parents can get Ident-A-Kid kits and buy bicycle helmets for $5. There will also be a Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting and a local proclamation declaring June 20 as Stand for Children Day in Bowling Green and Warren County. The event will also feature a display with the names of all 300 winners of the Spotlight Youths Spotlight a Youth award. The winners are nominated by various people, including teachers and neighbors.

We want to help make Bowling Green and Warren County aware of the resources for the children and celebrate the success that we have, she said. There are resources out there to help.

The Bowling Green celebration is part of a nationwide activity, which began in 1996. Bowling Green has hosted an event every year since 1998. Past themes have been Quality and Affordable Childcare, Healthcare for all Children, Creating a Voice and Vision for Children and A Renewed Commitment to Children and Families.

Grubbs credited Sherri Meyer of Western Kentucky University’s Child Care Resource and Referral Service with starting Stand for Children in Bowling Green before Community Education became involved. We started on a grassroots level here, she said. This year we brought in community patrons to help us put this together.

Each year the level of participation has risen, Grubbs said. The first year at Kereiakes Park, we had 500 children, she said. It has been at that level almost every year and has gone up to 700. A lot of the children who participate come from summer camps and day care centers, Grubbs said. Some summer camps have a picnic after its done, she said. Grubbs said organizers could still use some help preparing for and during the event. We would be happy to have volunteers, she said. For more information about Stand for Children Day, call Community Education at 842-4281.

 

Compton, Michael (2003, June). Stand for Children Day honors kids, teaches safety. Bowling Green Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.bgdailynews.com/stand-for-children-day-honors-kids-teaches-safety/article_1531ba1c-eff9-5291-a0a5-6c1c1204f9e1.html