NEW PARIS — For the first time in more than eight years, National Trail Local Schools held a community carnival on Saturday, May 6. The festival had something for the entire family, featuring carnival games and prizes, a bouncy house, food, a DJ, and more.
The event was held at National Trail in the elementary cafeteria and gym.
National Trail’s Renaissance Club and PTO teamed up to organize this first community carnival in nearly a decade. According to Renaisscance Club Advisor Sindi Hoke, the groups also invited people from the community to help out.
Those volunteers included local organizations including the local food banks, the Preble County Success Program, the Preble County Sheriff’s Office, the Preble County Community Action Partnership, the HIT Foundation, Head Start, Preble County Board of Developmental Disabilities, CTC Basic Education, and Adorn Clothing Ministry.
In addition to running their own carnival booths, the organizations passed out informational flyers and talked to attendees about the resources they provide.
“That way the community might receive the information better in a fun situation, rather than be embarrassed having to go some place to get that information,” Hoke said. “We try to make it fun for everybody.”
One of the volunteer carnival booths was manned by Preble County Head Start Supervisor Christi Reveal. Head Start is housed in all five county school districts, so the agency set up a booth at the carnival to represent National Trail’s section of Head Start.
Reveal said she thinks an event like the community carnival is important because it provides a safe and fun environment for local children.
“I think it just gets all of the people out from the community, hanging out together, having fun, letting the kids run around in a safe atmosphere,” she said.
According to Hoke, that was one of the reasons they decided to bring back the carnival. They wanted to provide something fun for local families. She added, “We’ve had a really rough year, our National Trail community. This was just something we thought would be really good, inspirational, and fun for our community.”
The district wanted to provide an environment for the community to come together and let loose.
She added, an event like this one is good for the community to band together. “It allows them to see that as we come together as a group, you can also band together for fun things, and be together when times are tough,” she said.
