Community Education and Stand for Children hosted the its 13th annual Stand for Children Day on Thursday at Western Kentucky University, drawing a crowd of about 1,000, despite a one-day rain delay.
This year’s event focused on literacy with book donations going to the Boys & Girls Club and the Bowling Green Housing Authority’s WROTE Foundation after-school program.
The annual celebration of services for families and children also featured a host of new activities this year, designed purely for fun. Celebration attendees enjoyed music, games and live entertainment and those who were not able to attend can still donate books for the next week at drop-off sites, including American Bank & Trust locations, Warren County Library branches, the Community Education office and Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
“Even with rain delay we still had close to 1,000 people,” said Anne Grubbs, enrichment and volunteer coordinator at Community Education. “That’s great considering some of the vendors could not come due to the change in the date. We also had very positive feedback about the activities and the contents of the booths.”
Some of this year’s new attractions included L&N Depot’s Thomas the Tank Engine, cornhole and a petting zoo. Royal Music also brought a new violin for kids to touch and explore. There was also face-painting and all kids who attended got free backpacks.
Sponsors of this year’s event were American Bank & Trust and the Bowling Green Kiwanis Club.
Community Education is a group of citizens and civic leaders that facilitate community collaboration and provide needed services at low cost to community members. Since it was founded in 1973, the organization has grown to provide before- and after-school care for more than 1,200 school-age children and for as many as 500 children during all-day programs, which are offered during school breaks.
Enrichment classes are also available for adults, which cover a wide variety of subjects including foreign language, cooking, fine arts, crafts, computer, fitness and recreation, finance, online classes and more.
Author Unknown (2010, June). Stand for Children event draws 1,000. Bowling Green Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/stand-for-children-event-draws/article_fafdda06-6823-52bc-b577-e2fb1046abfa.html