The Boys & Girls Club of Porter County held their annual Day for Kids event at Zao Island in Valparaiso on Saturday.
For Zao Island Manager Katy Hurst, she sees this event, which was sponsored by Metro Recycling, as simply amazing.
“We’ve been doing this with the Boys & Girls Club for years and it’s a great family event,” Hurst said. “It’s a great family event for a low cost and it’s a great area for kids.”
The Boys & Girls Club has this annual event to celebrate the children within their clubs and for self-promotion, according to Cathie Dull, assistant director of resource development.
“Day for Kids is a national celebration which gives us the chance to celebrate the kids,” Dull said. “It gives them a day of fun and memories with the caring adults in their lives.”
Day for Kids is meant to bring the family together for the day and to overall, have fun.
For one mom, she sees this as an opportunity that most do not always get.
“It brings the family together,” Kristen Baker said. “Not all families get an opportunity to bring their kids out to such a fun event.”
It is a fun event indeed, according to Brooke Healy, a South Haven Boys & Girls Club member.
“I look forward to going every year because I love riding the go karts,” Healy said. “I also love their waffle fries.”
The children are not the only ones who look forward to Day for Kids every year.
“I personally look forward to it every year,” Hurst said. “The kids and the staff from the Boys & Girls Club are amazing. The kids just love it.”
It is important to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter County to have family oriented events like this for many reasons.
“Life’s so busy anymore that many parents don’t always have a lot of time to with their children,” Dull said. “Anytime that we give the parents and kids a chance to have a fun day to create memories, we have to seize that. Strengthening family bonds is very important to us.”
Zao Island was the perfect place to strengthen those family bonds too.
“The great thing about Zao Island is that it’s all ages,” Hurst said. “A lot of the times, I will see the parents getting into just as much as the kids do, if not more sometimes.”
Day for Kids is not just a celebration for kids though. It also raises funds that go toward funding programs at the clubs.
Thanks to Zao Island and Metro Recycling, Day for Kids was clearly a success.
"We're very thankful for Metro Recycling for sponsoring and Zao Island for letting us take over their business," Dull said. "They're both very good to us."
Day for Kids shows the community that the Boys & Girls Club does truly care for their members and they want to always show that.
“There’s a day for mothers and there’s a day for fathers, but not a day for kids,” Administration Assistant Beth Claxton said.
