Residents Flock to Community Festival
Children played outside the community center.
Photos by Courtney Harris
Children lined up at the face painting tent.
By Courtney Harris
Outlook Writer
Most community bonds aren’t formed overnight. It takes a long term plan and a lot of involvement.
On Aug.1 the Big Bend Crime Stoppers event was able to get the community involved and excited about improving.
At the Providence Community Center residents experienced a day filled with laughter, support and learning at “The My Home, My Community, My Responsibility” Festival.
Following several months where crime has been on an uptick in Tallahassee, the festival provided a safe environment for residents to unite for a positive cause.
“Seems like recently, we (the community) only come together during a time of tragedy,” said LeRoy Jones, “so I’m happy that events like this can still happen.”
From the main stage of the festival, music blared for blocks while across the center’s lawn children were able to enjoy face painting, balloon animals and a small petting zoo of farm animals.
Meanwhile, adults gathered inside where several workshops were taking place.
The festival also held several workshops for the entire family. With fitness workshops to start the day, the nine hour event had workshops covering everything from learning how to gain financial stability to bullying 101.
Along with the workshops, vendors from companies across Tallahassee were present to inform residents of the free or low cost services across the city.
With representatives from Star Metro, Be The Solution and City of Tallahassee Utilities as just some of the vendors there providing information about the resources that can make life easier.
A representative from Tallahassee Utilities, Aboud Jaber, spoke about the city’s free energy audits, that any resident can request, as a gateway towards lowering your energy consumption.
“We are here to help everyone realize simple steps they can take towards saving money by becoming more energy efficient,” said Jaber.
Those in attendance were grateful to organizers for the assemblage of many important city resources as some admitted they were unfamiliar with many of them.
“I had never even heard of some of these organizations,” said Jackie Hinson, “but I’m glad I came because I learned something new today.”
