After two postponements in April due to rain and nearly another one on Saturday, May 17th, with threatening clouds overhead, the sun finally came out for a perfect Family Fun Day at Amersfort Park, located near the gazebo on the corner of Avenue I between East 38th and 39th Streets.
Children had boundless choices of things to do, with a large variety of blow-up fun houses lining one side of the park and areas filled with all kinds of activities like face painting, t-shirt dying, arts and crafts, beanbag toss games and steel drum lessons.
“I’m glad they have these little sports things for him now that the rain has stopped and we can come out,” one neighborhood mom named Rachel said about the variety of fun houses available for her son, Sage. “We got the sunglasses, a jump rope, there’s cotton candy and we’re having a great time.”
There was even a relay race with loads of prizes for the lucky team that was able to run the course. It included spinning hula hoops and jumping through them as the players waddled with balloons between their knees to pick up beanbags and toss them in the hole. Two teams of about ten children competed against each other and the team that had three successful tosses won the game.
After all that activity, there was plenty of food and snacks, such as hero sandwiches, drink pouches, potato chips, cotton candy, popcorn and cookies for hungry visitors.
The community came out to help, too, as several organizations provided tables of informational material and lots of swag to attract visitors.
Some visitors just wanted to stop by and sit on the benches nearby to take in all the music and excitement around them while enjoying the beauty of Amersfort Park’s trees, lush grass and rose garden, which was in peak bloom that day.
The event, sponsored by District 45 Councilwoman Farah Louis, could not have been possible without some help and she thanked all the volunteers, organizations and supporters who came out to help that day.
Among them were Millennium Development, Canarsie Lions, Tropicalfete Inc., EmblemHealth, Haitian Family Resource Center, Friends of Amersfort Park, Sesame Flyers International Incorporated, New York Life and others.
