Last Hurrah for Summer: YSS Holds Annual ‘Celebrate Youth’ Festival
Derek Redd Trending
WHEELING -- Screams of excitement filled the Wheeling Park Ice Rink as kids from all over the Ohio Valley jumped on bouncy castles, got their faces painted and more at the Youth Services System's annual Celebrate Youth Festival.
While their kids played to their heart's content, parents browsed local organizations' information booths to learn about the different services and resources available to them in the Ohio Valley.
YSS's mission is to "create better futures for children and families in the community," said YSS Director of Development & Public Relations Tammy Kruse. The organization offers a plethora of different resources for the community, such as emergency shelters and school-based mental health education.
YSS often collaborates with other local groups, such as the Youth Ministry Network, on community projects as well. The Celebrate Youth Festival is one of the greatest collaborative efforts the group undertakes, as organizations come to the event from "all over the Northern Panhandle," according to Kruse.
"We have all these organizations come under one roof so that people don't have to seek out these resources independently," added Kruse. "Whether somebody wants to learn about the National Council on Aging or find a college, there's somebody here that they can talk to."
Jessica Crumm and Jennifer Moore were two moms at the event taking advantage of the resources offered to them. Crumm said that it was especially beneficial to learn about all of the youth services available in the Ohio Valley, as she adopted her daughter from the foster care system.
"Today, I've learned about different services close to home available for kids who come from foster care that I had no idea about," said Crumm.
Moore also found the "networking" aspect of the event beneficial, alongside seeing all the different resources available in the community.
While the two moms enjoyed the educational aspect of the event, their daughters were thrilled by the face and hair painting available.
The big draw for families at the event is that children can enjoy fun and educational activities while parents browse the booths. Attendee Brooke Masters said the event was the "last day of fun" before her kids went back to school and that they were "trying to get everything in" before the festival ended.
"Everything" available at the Celebrate Youth Festival included free all-day passes for Wheeling Park activities. Kids could swim, paddle boat or play mini golf, and then stop back at the Ice Rink for a balloon animal made by Jingles the Clown or visit the opossum at the Good Zoo's booth.
Kruse said that the "cornucopia of activities" offered at the Celebrate Youth Festival that kids could enjoy for free was probably saving families "upwards of $100."
She added that even though the event ends at 4 p.m., YSS will turn in any unused day passes to Wheeling Park so parents who have to work until later in the day could still experience the park for free.
The Augusta Levy Learning Center provided hair painting and crayons at its booth. Taylor Rys, a certified occupational therapy assistant at Augusta Levy, said that while they had unfortunately run out of hair paint because it was so popular among the kids, the event had been a "really great way to educate and spread awareness on autism."
"There are not a lot of autism resources actually in our community," explained Rys. "It's been great to spread awareness for our center while having fun with the kids too."
Betsy Bethel-McFarland, marketing director for Easterseals Rehabilitation Center, echoed this sentiment, as the event provided a "great environment" for educating parents on their speech therapy and disability resources while their children had fun.
"We've been around for such a long time that a lot of people don't realize that we're here," she added. "We want people to know, and this is a great place to see a whole cross-section of the community.
Apart from free activities, YSS was also serving free food at the event. Kruse said YSS would stay and serve the food "until it's all gone," with attendees not limited to one serving, as anyone could "keep coming back for more."
With the event hitting its 15th anniversary this year, Kruse highlighted YSS staff as the key to the festival's prolonged success. She explained that YSS staff comes together for "months and months" of planning to make the event happen.
To create the Celebrate Youth Festival, YSS staff had to balance coordinating the services they would provide at the event, such as a free book table and handing out drawstring bags filled with school supplies, alongside collaborating with sponsors and exhibitors for their booths.
"We've figured out after 15 years how to make this run as smoothly as possible," said Kruse. "I'm excited for next year because we're already talking about what new activities we're going to have."