Heritage Days offers activities for kids to love

By Kathryn Menue

EDITOR

From Friday, June 24 through Sunday, June 26, Heritage Days provided three days of fun-filled activities for kids to enjoy. The fun spread all across Belvidere with activities ranging from West Chrysler Drive in Belvidere, to the downtown strip, and even to the Boone County Fairgrounds.

Carnival

Heritage Days kicked off on Friday, June 24 at 3 p.m. with a carnival at Fiesta Market, located at 400 W. Chrysler.

The carnival offered food, games, and rides for all ages. Kids could experience various carnival games to win toy prizes.

Parents and kids could partake in little, carnival rides such as a fun slide that had multiple slides so friends and family members could slide together.

With such a wide variety of activities available, Fiesta Market’s parking lot filled with excitement Friday evening with the night’s proceedings not settling down until the carnival ended for the day at 9 p.m.

The new addition of the carnival in the Heritage Days festivities brought a crowd big enough that parking spilled over into the parking lot of the old K-Mart.

However, carnival-goers did not have long to wait for the fun to reignite. The carnival continued on Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. both days.

Fiesta Market sponsored the carnival event.

Kids Carnival

With a bigger and better Heritage Days returning to Belvidere, one carnival was not enough.

The Boone County Fairgrounds was home to another carnival specifically designed for kids. The Kids’ Carnival ran on Saturday, June 25 from noon to 5 p.m. and on Sunday, June 26 from 5 p.m. until the fireworks at 9 p.m.

The Kids carnival featured fun games geared toward kids.

MercyHealth Systems made a special donation to make the Kids’ Carnival a reality.

Dari Ripple

Located in the heart of the Belvidere downtown strip and the Heritage Days festivities, the Dari Ripple was sure to produce kid-friendly activities.

The Dari Ripple did not disappoint. They offered a little animal-lover’s dream providing pony rides behind the ice-cream shop for only $5.

The Dari Ripple also had a stand where workers could help kids make a wax mold of their own hand. They had several different colors to choose from to ensure kids had a neat art project to take home. Kids could even ask for multiple colors for their wax hand to be dipped in to create a hand full of rainbow fun. The cost for the wax hand was $5.

The Dari Ripple also had a bounce house and little carnival games such as bozo bucket, ping pong toss, ring toss, and pick a duck. Kids could win fun prizes from these games to bring home as a souvenir from the day’s events.

“We help out every year for Heritage Days,” Dari Ripple worker Sydney Christenson said.

According to Christenson, Dari Ripple has had these activities for years. At first they had more games, but have now downsized to the activities that kids love the most.

These activities were offered on Saturday, June 25 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Then, the fun transferred to the Boone County Fairgrounds the next day to allow kids to play before the fireworks from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Christenson said it is nice to help out because they are able to see “a lot of kids have fun” at their events and at the other events downtown.

To ensure fun all around, the Dari Ripple also donates to other Heritage Days events such as Paint on State which takes place in front of the Dari Ripple on the State Street Bridge.

YMCA Activities

The Belvidere YMCA joined in on the Heritage Days festivities by providing free, fun games for children at the Boone County Fairgrounds.

The YMCA games included bean bag tic-tac-toe, bucket ball, Kerplunk, bean bag Bozo ball toss, pool noodle toss, and giant Connect 4.

The YMCA held the games on Saturday, June 25 from noon to 3 p.m. and on Sunday, June 26 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., ending the games just in time for kids to return to their families to enjoy the Heritage Day’s fireworks’ display.