Family Fun Day Comes To Edgewood Park

Brothers Logan and Mason Bacote enjoyed free ice cream that dribbled down their faces. Rasheem Jr. took a bite of a freshly made slice of pizza alongside his dad Rasheem Miller. And four-year-old Winter was gifted his first ever bicycle.

That was the scene Wednesday as the city’s Youth and Recreation Department kicked off its annual summer Family Fun Day events, a weekly outdoor mobile festival that travels to several neighborhoods during July and August.

This is the fourth year Youth and Rec has hosted such events. The first one, including Wednesday’s, always takes place at Edgewood Park.

From a pizza truck and water slide to free hair cuts and ice cream, Edgewood Park boomed with the rhythm of ​“Happy” by Pharrell while families and community members enjoyed the many things that make them happy.

The mobile festival will pop up in a different park every Wednesday until Aug. 14, running from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. All rain dates are on the following Thursday at the same times.

The schedule is as folllows: July 17 at Roberto Clemente School (360 Columbus Ave), July 24 at Ross Woodward School (185 Barnes Ave), July 31 at Clinton Avenue School (293 Clinton Ave), Aug. 7 at East Rock Park (Cold Spring Street and Orange Street), and Aug. 14 at Scantlebury Park (Ashmun Street and Bristol Street).

As kids climbed to the top of a tall inflated water slide ladder then slipped and slid down to the bottom, parents took the chance to pick up pamphlets and handouts under community tents from local resources like the Livable City Initiative, Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, and Community Action Agency.

Some parents also picked up a Xbox controller to play NBA 2K24 with their kiddos at a gaming truck.

Families left Wednesday’s event with full stomachs but only after waiting in seemingly endless lines at a pizza truck and hot dog stands to pick up free food.

Throughout the afternoon Deputy Director of Youth Services Ronald Higgins raffled off Roblox gift cards, Beats headphones, and a dozen bikes.

He explained that the mobile festival this year increased its presence of community resources for parents and guardians. Those included the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program (CT VIP) and tents that provided blood pressure checks and renter supports.

“It’s good for the kids to constantly see navigators and outreach workers or New Haven PD and fire,” he said. Even the event’s DJ, he said, was a New Havener — showing the many different ways people can give back to their home city and build successful careers within their community.

This Friday the Youth and Rec department will also kick off its annual movies in the park events starting with a showing of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at Roberto Clemente when the sun sets. Friday will also kick off the department’s Friday Night Lights event which will take over the Floyd Little field house for 13 – 20 year olds to enjoy open gym activities like basketball and volleyball and offer free hair cuts and eyebrow and eyelash appointments from 6 to 9 p.m.

Families flooded the park to enjoy bounce houses, arts and crafts, a slime factory, and tag on the nearby playground.

New Haven native Quanisha Morrison held one of her younger cousins up to reach an arts van decorated with a large paper full of signatures and images added by the community using paint and markers. After her cousin signed her name, Morrison joined with a marker afterwards.

“I love this type of stuff that’s about doing something for community,” Morrison said. ​“It’s summer time. These kids need to do something positive and to see we care about what they care about.”

While Morrison’s son wasn’t at Wednesday’s gathering with her, she said she has been searching for events exactly like this for her son, who was waitlisted for summer camp. ​“Times are hard. I can’t always get somewhere or pay for everything to keep him busy all the time but I want him to have these memories and experiences,” she said.

Morrison recalled growing up visiting Edgewood Park as a child and the lifelong memories made on the splash pad, park, and trails.

After hearing about Wednesday’s festival, Morrison called several of her cousins, nieces, and best friend to join her.

“This doesn’t happen enough but it needs to happen enough. It keeps us all going,” she said.

She suggested similar festivals be held during the school year to help parents out with after-school activities.

“This is so much better than just being at home,” she said explaining that she’s banned her son from video games this summer to encourage him to play outdoors more. ​“And it gives them stories to tell when they get back school.”

Morrison hopes to go to as many of the mobile festivals as possible this summer while encouraging more people to join her.

At the start of Wednesday’s event Hillhouse rising senior Siulmarie Santana prepped the city’s art bus and arts and crafts tables with hand-drawn black and white images of cartoon characters like SpongeBob, Bluey, and Donkey Kong.

She then encouraged kids to add color to the images she drew using markers and paint. Some students spent a half hour coloring in image after image Wednesday.

Santana is a student worker this summer for Youth@Work alongside her former Hillhouse art teacher Rebecca LeQuire. The work they perform throughout the summer includes driving a bus around the city to paint over graffiti and touch up city buildings and other objects like electrical boxes.

Santana, who has loved art since a child, said Wednesday’s event allowed her to experience the ​“best of both worlds” as her day to day work is behind the scenes beautifying the city. Wednesday’s task was instead to interact with the community and introduce them to creativity and self-expression.

At seven years old, Santana migrated to New Haven from Puerto Rico. She didn’t speak English but used art as a way to navigate language barriers and to express herself. She said art has always made her feel less alone.

While in high school Santana is finishing up getting an associates degree from Southern and in May completed a CNA program.

Lynette Ramos, a mother of two with a third on the way, painted alongside her three-year-old son as her ten-year-old daughter made slime with program specialist Kendall Shanklin.

Ramos, a New Haven native, said her children are not in summer camp and so ​“stuff like this helps” especially when it’s free. Her son especially enjoyed the water slide throughout the event.

Bridgeport resident Bernetha Miller was with her three children and a friend at Edgewood early Wednesday afternoon and saw the event being set up. They wondered from a distance whether it was public or private. When she found out it was a city-hosted public event for the community, she was immediately surprised because ​“nothing like this ever happens in Bridgeport,” she said.

As Miller and her two sons Winter, 4 and Royal, 2, each enjoyed ice cream from a free ice cream truck, Miller suddenly heard her son Winter’s name called on the microphone.

“Winter, come pick out a bike,” Huggins said into the microphone.

Miller raised her arms in the air and cheered as her son won a free bike through a raffle.

Winter raced up to Huggins and his team to claim a black and red bike with training wheels that replicated a dirt bike.

“Winter you finally have a bike now,” Miller cheered, then explained that she hasn’t had the money to get him a bike for the summer.

Miller said Bridgeport did not have many summer camp offerings and so she has been tasked with finding daily actives to keep her two boys and newborn entertained in the summer heat.

“They needed this,” she said.