NEPA’s Day Downtown set for Saturday

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WILKES-BARRE — NEPA’s Day Downtown fundraising festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday on Public Square and will feature live music, over 50 vendors, games and more.

The annual fundraiser is hosted by NEPA’s Summer in the City, an organization founded in 2022 that gives high school students a chance to development leadership skills and give back to the community.

Every summer, students participating in the program choose a local community or program to focus on and then work together to plan and operate a series of fun summer activities in order to raise money for it.

This year, the event will benefit Summer in the City’s 2024 Community Partner Hillside Farm’s Care Farming Services (their Youth Grief Camp), which provides local, disadvantaged youth who have experienced trauma with a fully-funded, week-long experience to heal through revolutionary “farm-based” therapy.

In addition to numerous food and craft vendors, the event will also feature raffles, a bake sale and adult games of chance like Instant Bingo and Big Wheel Six.

There will be a Kids Carnival Corner as well with carnival foods, games, face paint, balloon art, fortune telling and Hillside’s farm animals.

Live entertainment will be happening all through out the event and will include performers from local theaters and dances studios, bands and the brand new, “NEPA Celebrity Dance-a-thon.”

5K Run and Walk

The inaugural NEPA Run the River Race, a water-themed 5K run and mile walk, will take place around Kirby Park in conjunction with the fundraising event.

Regular registration until Friday is $30 and race day registration is $35.

Race day registration begins at 8:30 a.m., with the 5K run starting at 10 a.m. and the walk beginning at 10:15 a.m. An award’s ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. following the race and walk.

Participants can pick up pre-race packets from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at The Lands at Hillside Farms.

Those interested in participating in the 5K run/walk can register at: runsignup.com.