The sun was out and so was the neighborhood for this year’s Parkridge SummerFest & Joe Dulin Community Day. Over a thousand residents joined us in Parkridge Park to listen to local musicians, eat great food, and learn about community resources on Aug. 26.
Organized by a group of local residents who form the Parkridge SummerFest Committee, in partnership with our team at OCED, this day-long event is held on the 4th Saturday of August every year. Starting at 11 am, local acts such as the Aleicia & the 1st Groove Band, Kid Jay, and the Fantastic Four filled the park with music throughout the afternoon, until the headlining act - John E. Lawrence and the Power Band closed out the festival at 6 pm. While the music was certainly a huge draw, attendees were also treated to much more.
From Noon to 2:30 the community resource tents were open to the public, which housed booths from 60 nonprofit, government, and other service agencies that work in Washtenaw County, specifically the southside of Ypsilanti. In addition to offering information about their organization's services, the booths had a variety of free giveaways and activities. Some of the crowd favorites included Growing Hope's "blender bike" which gave kids the opportunity to make their own healthy fruit smoothies with a blender powered by their pedaling of a stationary bike, and St. Andrew Lodge #7 and Reach Church, who each gave away dozens of backpacks to local youth. In addition to the community resource tents, Mentor2Youth partnered with the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office to lead the Youth Activity zone which featured face painting, basketball, and other games activities. 
