The eighteenth annual Celebrate Our Children Festival is scheduled for Saturday, August 14, noon to 4 p.m., at Aurora’s renovated McCarty Park, East Galena Boulevard at Fourth Street.

Admission to the festival is FREE! Entertainment, music, food, clowns (The Merry Hearts Clowns), taekwondo demonstration, magic, games, balloons, and lots of fun are all part of an event designed to give area children a message of hope…

A returning attraction from the last several years is the pony riding ring and also a special petting zoo is again planned and the ever-popular giant “inflatables.”

Also FREE snacks(popcorn, cotton candy, & more) will be available. Additional food and beverages can be purchased during the festival to support local ministries. Numerous FREE games with prizes and “fun tattoos” will be available for children.

Community outreach and service agencies will have booths at the festival. Highlighting the booths will be family resources and services, FREE blood pressure screening, and give-aways for kids. Also returning is Ozzie - the Kane County Cougar mascot, the Aurora Fire Department, and the Aurora Public Library book mobile.

Festival parking will be at the First Presbyterian Church parking lot at the corner of 4th Street and Downer Place. The event’s rain site is the Harkness Family Center, 60 S. Fourth St.

The event’s current planning committee include McCarty Park churches and organizations — Triple Threat Mentoring, Community Christian Church-East Aurora, First Presbyterian Church, Warehouse Church, The Edge Church, and Wayside Cross Ministries.

(To volunteer at the event… email: volunteer@triplethreat.org)

For more information on the August 14 Celebrate Our Children Festival call (630) 362-6716. Internet users may visit www.celebrateourchildren.us.