Lake Norman Publications

Activities with a ‘back to school’ finale fuel fun in Huntersville


Veterans Park served as home base for Huntersville’s Week of Fun the first week of August. /Photos by Lindsay Krone

HUNTERSVILLE – Brainstorming about a back-to-school event morphed into a full week of community festivities in Huntersville resulting in a “Week of Fun” hosted by Huntersville Parks and Recreation, Huntersville Presbyterian Church and the Huntersville Police Department that drew hundreds of participants.

Last summer, Lindsay Small, HPRD’s downtown events and facilities coordinator, and Lisa Wilson, lay pastor for families at HPC, discussed ideas for an August event and realized the date would fall the same week as National Night Out traditionally organized by HPD. They saw an opportunity to expand the community reach by hosting free, fun activities in multiple parks around town on different days with the help of other organizations.

“Our goal was to provide community engagement and togetherness by creating a day of something special for everyone to enjoy,” Small said. “Through great partnerships with other town departments, local businesses and organizations we were able to meet the goal we set.”

Week of Fun themes were “Move It Monday,” “Teen Tuesday,” “Wet and Wild Wednesday,” “Take a Trip Thursday” and “Fun Friday.”

The Worship Movement Dance Studio and Camp Gladiator Huntersville led Monday’s workout at Veterans Park. On “Teen Tuesday,” families enjoyed free pizza, drinks and popcorn and a showing of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” on a big screen at Veterans Park.

Festivities moved to Waymer Park Wednesday, where children squealed with delight on a huge inflatable water slide, covered themselves in bubbles from a foam machine, ran through sprinklers and took turns as water squirter targets. HPD representatives grilled hotdogs and spent time talking to those in attendance.

On Thursday, festivities moved to brand-new Rosedale Nature Park for a scavenger hunt and then the “Take a Trip” portion sent participants to the North County Regional Library for popsicles and story time.

Friday’s event was a full-scale back-to-school bash with teen bands, food trucks, yard games, boxes of free school supplies and the Kiwanis Club unveiling of a kid-themed interactive mural at Veterans Park.

The town held a school supply drive throughout July, so each event offered free school supplies to participants, but the greatest turnout was on Friday. Three 6-foot tables covered in school supplies were quickly cleared at the start of the massively successful “Fun Friday” event.

“The way ‘Fun Friday’ turned out was the icing on the cake,” Wilson said. “To have the support of HPD with the school supplies and their involvement, the local food trucks, the music, and all the families made for a wonderful end to the week.”

Wilson and Small said collaboration between the three entities helped make connections that added exponentially to the resources any one organization would have had. They said it was a lot of work, but well worth the end result.

“To be together in our community, watching people having fun and laughing, watching kids play and run, there is no limit to the joy it brings,” Wilson said. “Being able to serve families with the school supply drive and watching interactions across the neighborhoods, schools and backgrounds is my favorite part of the week.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *