“It’s really nice,” Shannon Studley an Alpena resident who along with her daughter Maizy participated in the Family Day event for the first time. “We didn’t know what to expect, we just decided to come down here and do something today.”

The event started at noon and saw kids and their parents wait in line to enter a big white tent. Upon entry, participants are greeted with over a dozen different tables hosted by a variety of local organizations and businesses.

Some of the groups and companies that either directly helped host or in some way provided for the Family Day event included the Alpena Hockey Association, Alpena Alcona Area Credit Union, the Great Lakes Fishery Crew, the Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, the Boys and Girls Club of Alpena, the Youth Volunteer Corp, Meijer, MyMichigan Trauma Team, Alpena-Montmorency Conservation District, Three 2 Me balloons, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, and the Alpena High School robotics team.

“It’s a community event,” Michelle Miller, head organizer for the Family Day event, said. “Everyone here is kind enough to donate their time and resources.”

New Photo by Temi Fadayomi Wilson Township Firefighters help kids try on their equipment as part of Family Day at the Brown Trout Festival on Sunday.

Miller, who has been volunteering at Family Day for the last 12 years, sees Family Day as not just a day for kids and their parents to enjoy themselves, but also an opportunity to provide families in the community with valuable resources like school supplies.

“I retired from the school system as a secretary,” Miller said “My daughter was a teacher when I retired and there was a lot of need in the community for school supplies, so instead of just giving out trinkety things we decided it would be a good idea to invest our money into things people could actually use.”

Throughout the course of the Family Day event, Miller and the rest of the volunteers were successful in handing out more than 300 bags of school supplies. Children were also gifted with a variety of other gifts like trees provided by the Alpena-Montmorency Conservation District and life vests provided by MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena. Families were also offered snacks as they exited the tent.

Upon leaving the event tent, families were met by a booth hosted by the Michigan Army National Guard, which sat in front of an inflatable obstacle course that children were free to play on.

Emergency service workers from different departments in Alpena County were also present for the Family Day event.

News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Attendees are pictured Inside the tent of Family Day at the Brown Trout Festival on Sunday.

Collected on the other side of the street from the tent, the emergency service workers educated kids who came by about the work that they do and how their equipment worked as well as hosting games and providing kids with prizes.

“It was a good day,” Wilson Township Fire Department Captain Jake Trelfa said. “We saw lots of kids and gave plenty of prizes.”

New Photo by Temi Fadayomi Head organizer for Family Day at the Brown Trout Festival, Michelle Miller along with other volunteers hands out school supplies to event participants on Sunday.