Fall Festival Block Party

The Martinsburg, WV corps had our Annual Fall Festival Block Party recently. It is a community event in which even our neighbors participate! It is sponsored by the Home League and is an event which our community looks forward to each year. There’s music, games, prizes, sales, and a lot of safe family fun for everyone to enjoy.We begin by blocking off the two streets that intersect where our building sits. We have stations set up and each year the Home League ladies help man them. There is a food station with hot dogs, cotton candy, drinks, and popcorn.
	We have a bazaar where people can buy new and used items for Christmas. The main attraction, however, is the inflatable games. Each year, we have inflatable slides, moon bounces, jousting, an obstacle course, a 6-in-1 sports center, and occasionally we throw in a dunking tank!This year, we also allowed folks from the community to rent a spot in the block party ($10.00 a table) to have their own yard sale. Our Adventure Corps Rangers and Explorers rented a spot and each boy sold items for their entrepreneur badge.
There is a registration table set up in the middle of all the excitement where Home League ladies take the names addresses of each family so that we can contact them later and invite them to the different corps programs, including Home League. The Corps Cadets went around and personally invited each person to church and gave them a paper listing the times for church and Sunday school. It truly is a corps family event with each group doing their part, with the Home League playing an integral role! This year, we had over 800 people attend our block party, and we look forward to seeing even more next year! Major Dianne Welch, Corps Officer Tracy Craddock, Program/Volunteer Coordinator Martinsburg, WV