By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Who loves a parade more than children? Perhaps their parents. Who loves being in a parade? Children, their parents and teachers.
At least 300 preschool children, parents and preschool teachers are expected to parade through downtown Washington today, beginning at 10:30 a.m. The parade route begins at the intersection of Stewart Parkway and West Main Street, continuing eastward on Main Street through the downtown area.
After the parade, the inaugural Celebrate Children’s Festival begins next to the N.C. Estuarium on Water Street, where lunch will be served to parade participants.
The parade and festival are part of the local observance of Week of the Young Child, a nationwide, annual public campaign to raise awareness of the needs of young children and their families and recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet the needs of young children and their families, according to a Beaufort/Hyde Partnership for Children news release.
“The parade has been going on for more than eight years,” said Kendra Windley with the Beaufort/Hyde Partnership for Children.
There’s a simple reason for the inaugural Celebrate Children’s Festival, she said.
“Well, in the past we’ve had the parade and the ECU Storybook Theatre. This year, we wanted to do more,” Windley said.
Catherine Keech, with Child Connections, said the festival is a natural outgrowth of other Week of the Young Child observances held in the past.
“My staff actually came up with (the idea) last year,” she said.
Keech said she and her staff wanted to get more people and agencies involved with young children to participate in Week of the Young Child activities. The Celebrate Children’s Festival should accomplish that goal, she said.
“We’ve got a few agencies involved this year. We hope to have even more next year,” Keech said.
The parade, sponsored by the Beaufort/Hyde Partnership for Children, will feature preschool children, parents and preschool teachers dressed in costumes or their favorite attire. Area agencies are expected to participate in the parade with decorated wagons.
The Celebrate Children’s Festival includes Patch Clark and her East Carolina University Storybook Theatre students using dramatization to bring books to life, a police car — with lights and siren activated — for children to inspect, a fire truck with an aerial platform, a car-seat clinic on how to properly install car seats for children, a N.C. Cooperative Extension Service/4-H booth, a Goose Creek State Park booth and a dig-for-fossils pile provided by PotashCorp Aurora. Also expected to be a part of the festival are Child Development Services Agency, Higher Grounds Educational and Professional Services and “Wendy,” mascot of the Wendy’s fast-food chain.
Jackie Boyd, a family-support specialist and parental educator, will assist children in creating outdoor art.