“We’ve been coming to this for many years,” Alpena resident Jennifer Werda said, who attended the event with her children Maggie, Mason, and Lyra. “Our kids always enjoy it. There are always a lot of games and activities and they have fun. It’s a good time.”

According to the club’s president, Beckie Thomson, the Optimist Club puts on the Free Family Fun Day on the Tuesday of spring break every year. Thomson says that the primary goal of the event is to provide a day of fun and excitement for the families that for one reason or another aren’t able to travel for spring break.

“We have been doing this at the high school every Tuesday of spring break,” Thomson said. “We have been doing it mostly for those families who either cannot afford to take their kids on a vacation or they’re working and they can’t get time off to take their kids on a vacation, so the kids are stuck here when everybody else is going somewhere and having fun and coming back to school and talking about it. We wanted to give them something that they could go back to school and talk about. So we started spring break fun day.”

Originally, according to Thomson, the event started as a day strictly meant to entertain the kids, but it started to shift to a more family and community focus as community needs increased.

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Alpena resident Jennifer Werda with her children Maggie, Mason, and Lyra play a carnival game at Free Family Fun Day hosted by the Alpena Optimist Club on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

“At first it was just for kids,” Thomson said. “But, as the community needs become greater, especially in the food department because there are so many families that aren’t able to afford things, it just became Free Family Fun Day instead of Free Kids Fun Day.”

A majority of the food and drinks were donated to the event with the cookies served being handmade by the club members in preparation for the event.

“We get chips from Perch’s IGA, they donate them every year for us,” Thomson said. “We get pop and drinks from Pepsi, which they donate to us every year. We, as a club, make homemade cookies for the kids so that they have a dessert. Consolidated Fruit gives us fruits for the kids every year. So that is kind of a healthy snack that they can have.”

For activities, the gymnasium was opened up for a few sports and a variety of carnival games as well as other fun activities like go-cart racing.

“We opened the gyms so they can play basketball and volleyball,” Thomson said. “We have go-karts that we have gotten donated from all of the car dealerships in the area. We have a few carnival games that the Optimist Club has had for years and we open the carnival games up but let the kids play.”

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Kids and families at Free Family Fun Day hosted by the Alpena Optimist Club swim in the pool on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

Additionally, the event had multiple vendors who provided education and entertainment for those who attended.

“We invite vendors that might have something educational or fun for the kids to do,” Thomson said. “Like District Health Department No. 4 is always here. They talked about dental health, mental health, and other physical health. The Sheriff’s Department is usually here and the Michigan State Police and they talk about safety. Home Depot is here and they have crafts for the kids that they can either take home and build or build here. The Fish and Wildlife is always here and they just show a lot of different animals that are conducive to our area and let the kids know different things about the animal’s history and lifestyle where they will find these animals and how to treat them. The farmers market is always here and they have fruits and vegetables.”

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Kids and families at Free Family Fun Day hosted by the Alpena Optimist Club swim in the pool on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Kids and families at Free Family Fun Day hosted by the Alpena Optimist Club swim in the pool on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Free Family Fun Day attendees race go-karts on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Free Family Fun Day attendees check out the farmer’s market booth on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Free Family Fun Day attendees check out the farmer’s market booth on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Free Family Fun Day attendees check out the farmer’s market booth on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Michigan State Police Trooper Jason Kunath speaking to Free Family Fun Day attendees at the MSP booth on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Michigan State Police Trooper Jason Kunath speaking to Free Family Fun Day attendees at the MSP booth on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Volunteers for Free Family Fun Day hosted by the Alpena Optimist Club help provide attendees with snacks on Tuesday at Alpena High School.