By Scottie Brown

The Selma Times-Journal

Every member of the family can get information from different business around town and have some fun at the first Community Family Festival, scheduled for Friday, July 18 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the Selma High School Gymnasium.

Kennard Randolph, Youth and Senior Citizen Coordinator for Selma, said the event would focus on bringing the community together.

“From the parent to the child, it’s about them bonding together,” Randolph said. “We’re just trying to bring families together, the community together and to have fun.”

The event will offer health screenings ranging from diabetes testing to vision screenings. Randolph said there would also be educational games for the parents and children.

“There will be games where the kids can interact with each other,” Randolph said. “It’s basically just to teach kids how to interact with each other in a positive sense, and also to teach the parents how to interact in a way that they may not have known at home.”

The event is partnering with Smart Start, a program for ages four months to 5 years, along with several other community agencies.

The idea for the Community Family Festival, which will cater to children of all ages, came from a brainstorming session to expand Smart Start’s reach, Randolph said.

“We realized we can touch not only the infant stage,” Randolph said. “’We can touch up to high school age and see how we can maybe change the mindset of kids in school and see how can help them think differently and be more positive about themselves and do it in a fun way.’”

The event is free to the public, and Randolph said he hoped everyone would come out and participate

“It’s really a community effort to bring the family together,” Randolph said. “That’s what it’s all about. That’s why it’s called a Community Family Festival. I’m hoping that it will give the kids the sense that the city cares and that the city wants to see more events like this take place.”