Last night I was one of many volunteers invoked with National Night Out, a free community event. While each community has different activities, our church, Almaden Hills United Methodist Church also gave out backpacks with school supplies to families with children in need.The backpack giveaway was the highlight of the evening.
Children in small groups were let in to choose theirs. We had ones in bright colors incluidng blues and reds featuring Star Wars, Super Man, Mickey Mouse and others for boys and ones in pinks and other pasties featuring Top Pups, Barbie and Minnie Mouse for girls.
As a mom to be whose child may be a daughter, I wondered how the girls would react to being steered to the girl’s backpacks with so many boys choices featuring current popular characters. To my surprise the only any girls wanted to choose was Mickey Mouse.
We ran out of backpacks for girls sooner than those for boys and this was even with a few girls choosing Mickey over choices like the ones in the photo above and below.
Last year’s backpacks, one of which I used to make an announcement in church weeks ago to drum up support for our event, included seeing figures like Sofia the First. I had hoped to see similar ones this year, yet despite Top Pups, I did not see any.
Our event included entertainment from these wonderful costumed dancers.
There were booths to visit with things to make.
The children were able to get paint designs on their arms.
I even wore one of our hats in my head to get children to come see ceratain booths.
Another popular part was the cake walk, in which kids walk to music and whoever is on the numbered spot chosen won their choice of a cake or dessert.
We also had a talented balloon artist twisting all sorts of great creations to take home.
As the weather was quite hot at 90-94 degrees, I had fun, yet spent a lot of time in the shade and making sure to spend time indoors as well. I believe I felt the heat more than others may have as I was pregnant and several church members said I was very red in the face and asked if I was OK. I’m glad I was able to participate and stay cool when I needed to.
~ Danielle
Over 40 First Time Mom 