FAMILY FUN FAIR OVERRUN BY KIDS

About 800 family members shared a festive and informative day Sunday during the Family Fun Fair at Arena Park.

Children played a variety of games and made crafts as their parents looked on at booths inside the A.C. Brase Arena Building. Parents were also able to gain information on support services in the fair's Parenting Education and Information center.

"We're absolutely running over with kids," said Kim Swartz, executive director of the Community Counseling Center, hosts for the fair. "We have a lot of different games and activities for the kids today, and there are 20 agencies supplying information to parents about child safety, health and other topics of interest."

Parents said they appreciated the opportunity to enjoy family-oriented activities with their children. "I usually work on weekends and we just wanted to get out with the kids and have fun," said Teressa Johnson, who attended the fair with her husband, two daughters and a niece. "It's better than sitting in the house and watching TV."

Parents also attended the event because they wanted the opportunity to socialize with other parents. "With our group, the other people are like our extended family, and this is just a big get-together for us," said Lisa Roe, a member of Parents Without Partners. The group was on hand to pass out balloons to children. "It's good for the kids and the parents."

Swartz said one unique aspect of the fair, which was formerly called Sunday in the Park, was the number of volunteers participating this year. More than 180 volunteers, most of them students from Southeast Missouri State University, participated in the event, which corresponded with the university's Greek Week activities.

"The university has given us so much support with this every year," Swartz said. "We corresponded the days specifically with Greek Week because all of the Greeks are active in volunteer activities. A lot of the games were also provided by a recreation class at the university. It's a fabulous amount of help these young people have provided today."

One thing absent from the day's activities was product advertisement and sales. Although some commercial businesses were on hand with food and the call letters from several media outlets were prominently displayed, no product promotion was allowed during the event.

"There's not a lot of commercialization going on," Swartz said. "Nobody's selling anything and we're not promoting any products. That's one of the main rules of the promotion committee: They have to be providing a service."