KidsFest! Kiwanis festival returns Saturday
The annual Kiwanis KidsFest will return for its 22nd year at Sun Splash festival grounds Saturday featuring a new amusement center for the kiddos.
“We’ve been doing it for quite some time,” KidsFest Chair Vanessa Silva said. “Our KidsFest is pretty much geared towards health and wellness for children.”
KidsFest will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday at SunSplash Family Waterpark, 400 Santa Barbara Blvd. Admission to the festival is free.
The festival will feature Golisano Children’s Hospital, as well as the Lee Health ambulance. Silva said there will be a special section for sanitation that will show children the proper way to wash their hands. Once the kids wash their hands they will be put under a blue light to show germs that may be lingering behind before being shown the proper way to wash their hands.
New this year, which Silva said they are “totally excited about” is an amusement center that will feature carnival type rides and games. The area will include a kiddie Ferris wheel, rock climbing wall, the spider jump – a trampoline where kids are strapped in and are free to jump -and a carnival game area.
KidsFest also will feature its annual art contest, in which children from Lee County schools have an opportunity to participate with this year’s theme being fall related.
“We put it up in the tent and let the kids vote on it,” she said. “We gear everything for the kids.”
A costume contest, with three different age groups, will also be among the activities.
“You see all kinds of different costumes,” Silva said.
The entertainment is also pretty packed with back-to-back performances. Some of the entertainment includes karate, dancing, theatrical performances and a choir. She said all of the performance features kids.
The title sponsor of the KidsFest is the Gunterberg Charitable Foundation. They are providing free corn dogs, chips and water for the kids.
There will be a tent set up right through the entrance gate for the Cape Coral Caring Center.
“We are asking people to bring in canned foods, or nonperishable items to donate,” Silva said.
They are also asking for donations for parking, which will be given to the Trafalgar’s Builder’s Club.
“Everything that is donated in the parking lot is going to them,” Silva said.
The event in the past has attracted between 3,000 to 4,000 attendees.