Ouachita Children's Center is inviting area parent teacher organizations, school clubs, scout troops, youth groups, nonprofits, and arts and crafts vendors to set up a booth at its Community Back-to-School Carnival planned for Aug. 26.
"Right now this is not really a promotion of the actual carnival," said Sallie Culbreth, director of community relations for OCC. "Last year they had kind of a back-to-school event here on the campus of Ouachita Children's Center, but our focus for this event is substance abuse prevention and awareness. We just felt like it would be important to do something, open this up to the community and make it a good event for everybody."
Groups are welcome to kick off their fundraising (no food or drink sales), distribute information about their group (other than political or religious materials), and recruit for group membership or projects. There is no cost. Space will be given on a first-come, first-served basis. The location will be provided once a group registers.
"We want to let groups, nonprofits, arts and crafts people know that we're opening this up for the community and if they want to set up a booth in that space, they can do their fundraising, they can promote their organizations, just raise awareness or whatever they do. We just wanted to make it a very inclusive event," Culbreth said.
The carnival will feature bouncy houses, monster trucks, an Elvis impersonator, martial arts and gymnastics exhibitions and possibly a dance team. A food truck and snow cone truck will also be on site.
"We'll be putting out promotional information about the carnival in a couple weeks but right now we're just wanting to give groups an opportunity to participate if it will help their organization," Culbreth added.
Groups are responsible for their own tables, canopies, chairs, and materials. No electricity or water will be available. Each group will need to register and sign a vendor agreement before being accepted. Interested groups can call Culbreth at 501-623-5591, ext. 223, or email her at [email protected] for more information.
The deadline for submission is 2 p.m. on Aug. 18.
Local on 07/08/2017