ONTARIO — Shaved ice and syrups were flowing freely on Saturday at Marshall Park for the first Ontario Kids Festival.
Most of the festival’s activities were free or donation-based, including inflatables, rides, a petting zoo and carnival booths.
A line of food trucks sold treats for people to cool off and the entertainment stage included songs, dances and an Anna and Elsa meet-and-greet.
Most of Sluss Realty’s team supervised carnival booths and games. Jami Kinton-Sluss, realty marketing director and event chairwoman, said the agency hopes to make the festival an annual event.
Kinton-Sluss and her husband Grant Sluss proposed the festival to Ontario City Council in February and she started booking rides and organizing volunteers after that.
“I’ve never planned a festival before, so I used every bit of that four months,” Kinton-Sluss said. “I really want to thank the City of Ontario for working so well with us. We got this location really quickly, and we’re super excited to be able to do this for the community.”
In addition to the rides, entertainment and petting zoo, kids could participate in an obstacle course, laser tag and explore an Ontario Police Department command truck.
Kids who played carnival games and used a punch card for each booth they visited had the opportunity to win prizes and were entered in a drawing to win a year-long pass to Altitude Trampoline Park.
Tylor Wolf brought his 7-year-old son to the festival, who said his favorite booth was a fishing game.
“We’ve just done the games so far but he’ll go on the rides too,” Wolf said. “It’s nice to have a local festival with this much to do.”
Jessica Patton brought her two kids, Charli, 8, and Landon, 14, to the festival.
“I saw it all over Facebook and thought it’s going to be hot, but I think it will be a lot of fun,” she said.
Patton’s mother, Cathy Frank, also joined the family at the festival.
“We were expecting a lot of people, and it didn’t cost a lot of money, which is a big deal nowadays,” Frank said.
Forty vendors each paid $50 to set up at the park, which went toward festival costs. All proceeds will be donated to the Humane Society of Richland County.
“We wanted families to be able to come out and spend the day and spend little to no money,” Kinton-Sluss said. “But we are also big advocates for the Humane Society of Richland County, so we wanted to take such a big opportunity to drive awareness for them and also raise some funding for their organization.”
Major sponsors of the festival included Smile Doctors, Niss Aviation, Mechanics Bank, Universal Enterprises, Kleshinski, Morrison and Morrison, LLP and The Ohio State University of Mansfield.
