Kids Day at East Hills: Community Organizing with Real Bounce

Anyone who says that I’m not a fan of a kid-themed event has clearly never interviewed my nieces or nephews …or even their kids now. I love a well-planned event devoted to lighting up their imaginations but one that instills a greater sense of community in our adults, too.

East Hills Council of Neighbors welcomes its first Kids Day event at Congress Elementary – a result of a conversation between board members Ryan VanderMeer and Elizabeth Hoffman-Ransford a few months prior as to how few children’s events are happening in our city’s neighborhoods.

This rain or shine event will feature timed events like yoga, karate, hula-hooping, dance, and even a music performance by the Triumph Music Academy followed by a neighborhood parade on bikes.

All day activities will include bike repairs by The Spoke Folks, creative writing instruction by the Creative Youth Center, crafts, bike decorating, the obligatory bounce house and many more fun child-focused activities.

VanderMeer and Hoffman-Ransford hope that with all the baby-making going on in the neighborhood, these types of community organizing events will result in new Congress students instead of what has happened in the past, with parents sending kids elsewhere or moving out of the urban center altogether due to school district preference. The event organizers stress, however, that GRPS/Congress is only a partner on this and that this is not an official GRPS event.

Word of warning about the bounce house: if you discover a larger-than-toddler-sized bloke looking a bit dazed and confused, it is just that I have spent too long in the pen. Just bring me some of that free cider and donuts being served courtesy of The Urban Pharm, East Hills Business Association and Applied Imaging, and we should be back in the business of creating a place worth sharing and laughing together. Let’s bounce.


Admission: Free