Camp Fair Fun: 10th Annual Family Event Attracts More Than 3200
By Laurie Evans
What did you do on Saturday, April 14, 2012? Can you remember? If you were one of the more than 3,200 folks who joined Lexington Family at our 10th annual Summer Camps and Activities Fair, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten.
Perhaps you were one of the 529 people who streamed in the door in the first 15 minutes.
You might even have been one of the lucky families from that early crowd who won four passes to see “Disney on Ice: Toy Story 3.”
For the visitors to our Fair, held at Lexington Christian Academy, winning prizes was just a bonus.
The main attractions were the 80 booths representing camps, birthday party venues, enrichment classes, private schools, tutoring services, health care professionals and other family-friendly businesses.
Parents signed up their children for camps, scheduled birthday parties, found a doctor or dentist, registered for classes and even learned about foster care and adoption opportunities.
While their parents were busy talking to vendors, kids kept busy, too. They had their faces painted, their hair done and their nails painted.
They tested how high they could jump, learned taekwondo kicks, played a giant game of Connect 4, experimented with dry ice, and did the limbo.
Kids tried on costumes, made healthy snacks, blew a train whistle, jumped in an inflatable bouncee and perfected their tee-ball skills.
Our visitors met Big “L,” “Ariel,” the Chick-fil-A cow, and several princesses and ballerinas.
Parents took home bags and bags of information, flyers and giveaways. Valtina Ballew,a Lexington mother, brought her 9- and 13-year-olds to look for camps.
“There was really a lot of information about things I didn’t even know existed in Lexington,” Ballew said.
We heard that from many of the families we met at the Fair. Nikki Brown brought her 4-year-old and 16-month-old.
“I want to get my kids involved in activities,” Brown said. “This was a great opportunity to see a lot of things all at once.”
Brown entered her children in Lexington Family’s Cover Model Contest. Robin Allen Photography’s booth was hopping the whole four hours as more than 200 kids stopped to have their photos taken.
We will choose four winners to appear on Lexington Family Magazine covers over the next year.
Some of the visitors at the Fair came for the Writing Contest awards.
All six of our grand prize winners and all 18 of those who received honorable mention were on hand at 1 p.m. when Marvin Bartlett of Fox 56 handed out the prizes.
It was truly an entertaining day with performances by loads of talented kids, including dancers from Lexington Dance Factory and Barbara Ann’s School of Dance, rock bands from the Lexington Music Academy, gymnasts from Legacy Gymnastics, the Starlight Singers from The Lexington Children’s Theatre and athletes from Tiger Kim’s TaeKwonDo.
I sure hope you didn’t miss it. But if you did, you can check out our Camp Directory at our website at www.lexingtonfamily.com
Didn’t win a prize? Be sure to “like” us on Facebook where we give away prizes every week.
And mark your calendars now – next year’s Fair will be Saturday, April 13, 2013.