There are so many things to love about the Fall. The cool, crisp morning air. The afternoons filled with warm sunshine and brightly colored leaves. Pumpkin everything!
For Kind Hearts for Kids, Fall is a time of community, of gathering together and of celebration. It is most certainly the busiest time at KHFKs,but it is also our favorite. Why, you ask? Because we have the privilege of hosting two events (back to back) that bring our community together and that benefit the kids that KHFKs serves. We are of course referring to the KHFKs Halloween celebration and the KHFKs Cape Cod Kindness Festival.
But the preparation for these two big events begins long before Fall - at the height of flip flop and iced coffee season. Over the summer, the KHFK Kindness Committee, made up of a number of volunteers, was hard at work planning and preparing for both events. Our amazing supporters helped by donating items from our wishlist-raffle basket items, toys, games, Halloween items, costumes and more. KHFKs was also blessed with many wonderful sponsors who stepped up and signed up to support the Kindness Festival.
In the blink of an eye September was upon us and event preparation was in full swing. The KHFK office was overflowing with donated goodies as a group of volunteers gathered to create all of the raffle baskets for the Cape Cod Kindnesses Festival. With all of the incredible donations, the resulting raffle baskets were above and beyond what we could have imagined and the volunteers did beautiful work putting them together!
September continued to bring us beautiful weather and with it brought us lots of smiling faces and helpful hands from our Community partner - Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts as they joined Kind Hearts for Kids as part of their annual Service Day. The BCBSMA volunteers spent the day putting together Kindness kits, Halloween goodie bags and water bottles filled with kids crafts, toys and games all to be used for the Halloween party and Kindness Festival.
October came quickly, but KHFK was ready as founder Nicole Mitchell and the core volunteer group worked non-stop to prepare and to ensure the success of both events. Halloween party-check, Food trucks-check, Vendors-check, DJ Stephanie Viva-check, Flash Mob-check, Martial Arts Demo-check, Kids Zone-check, and the list goes on and on. You get the idea-these folks were B U S Y and were rocking it!!
KHFKs kicked off the first event of the Fall season on October 1st. The annual Halloween party was held at a new and beautiful location along the waterfront in Onset. Over 100 kids attended the party and boy did these kids have a blast! The energy was palpable as the kids filled the room. The party included Halloween themed games, goody bags, lots of treats, and baked goods, face painting by Lauren DeGregorio of Opaylsis Designs, Arts and Crafts by Dianne Enzian of Dianne’s Art Farm, a Halloween selfie station and costume “shopping” (free of charge)for the kids for Halloween. Seeing the kids in their costumes put us all in the Halloween mood! Their smiling faces and laughter were the proof that this first event had been a great success!
With barely time to catch a few zzzs, it was on to the Cape Cod Kindness Festival the very next weekend. Starting bright and early in the rain on Saturday morning, October 8th, Buzzards Bay Park was quickly transformed into the Second Annual Cape Cod Kindness Festival. Vendors set up their areas, Food Trucks moved into place, Pine Meadows Alpacas set up their petting Zoo, the Kids Zone was created, information booths were set up and the whole park came to life. As the time approached for the Festival to begin, the clouds disappeared and the sun began to shine. A beautiful Fall day at the park was upon us.
Kindness and smiles were the theme of the day -as evidenced by the smiling faces of our own Bourne PD, DJ for the day-Stephanie Viva and our volunteers.
The Kids zone, with games, arts and crafts, face painting, Henna art and a gift at entry (thank you BCBSMA-the kids LOVED the water bottles!) was a BIG HIT!! Thank you to all the volunteers who helped to set it up, run stations and collect donated toys!
We were so fortunate to have 'The Pound' returning again this year with their talented students and incredible Martial Arts demonstrations!
Joining in the fun was the Center Stage Outreach Team and Studio 721 with stupendous dance demonstrations and even a Flash Mob!
Throughout the day there were a steady line of patrons partaking of all of the amazing food provided by our local business Food Trucks-Wicked Fire, Seafood Sam’s and Frosty Friends!
Pine Meadow Alpacas again showed their kindness and support by sharing their adorable animal friends with us at the Festival. The kids just love them (and so do we)!
As the Cape Cod Kindness Festival wound down and the area again transformed back into a park, we took a moment to reflect on the day and of ALL the people who made it all possible. THANK YOU to all of the volunteers, sponsors, businesses and our Community for making this such a beautiful and successful day!! Special thanks to Brandon Santos for sharing his gift of photography and his photos with us!
And a special reminder to thank this amazing woman, Nicole Mitchell, the Founder of Kind Hearts for Kids for making all of this happen and for doing it (always) for the kids!!
