Staff Writer
The annual Caribou Cares About Kids festival is offering three days of fun for area children as well as their families from Thursday Aug. 7 through Saturday, Aug. 9.
The event will offer activities for children of all ages, according to Wendy Landes of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the event’s organizer.
“I think we have the nicest parade in Aroostook County,” said Landes. “We end up with a parade that people from all over come to see and they bring their kids to see it.”
Prizes for the parade categories are the best non-profit, best for-profit float and the Spirit of Caribou, a new category which Landes hopes will be the “catch-all” category to fit all other great floats.
The festival will take a hiatus next year with local officials concentrating on the city’s 150th celebration, according to Landes. However, the observance will return in 2010, she said.
Activities begin on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. with a rubber duck race on the Main Street Bridge. A total of 500 numbered rubber ducks will be sold for $5 each with first, second and third place winners sharing 50 percent of the proceeds. The rest of the proceeds will be donated to charity.
On Friday, activities start at 11 a.m. with an ice cream social at Kieffer Insurance at 101 High St. Children are invited to have free sundaes and meet Snoopy.
At 5 p.m. on Friday, the Kiwanis will hold a strawberry shortcakes sale to raise money for several groups involving Caribou youth, including various high school extra curricular activities. The sales also support two local scholarships.
The popular “Caribou Cares about Kids” parade gets underway at 6 p.m., beginning at the Skyway Plaza, proceeding down Bennett Drive, High, Hershel and Sweden streets and ending near Reno’s Restaurant.
After the parade, a movie will be shown “under the stars,” at Teague Park. “Horton Hears a Who” will be shown on a big screen, with snack and pre-movie activities after the parade. Cary Medical Center, Pines Health Services and the Caribou Recreation Department sponsor the event.
Saturday’s activities include five hours of fun on Sweden Street and at Teague Park.
In the Caribou courthouse parking lot on Sweden Street, a “kids and pets” event will offer pet registration, pet micro-ships, a hotdog, soda and chips all for $15. Iris scans will be offered for children at no charge by the Caribou Police Department.
Members of the Gray Memorial Methodist Church will barbeque chicken between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., while G-force Laser Tag will be offered in the S.W. Collins parking lot at 5 p.m..
Meanwhile, Teague Park will offer a myriad of activities from children and their families beginning at noon.
A fun and fitness fair, sponsored by Caribou Medical Center and the Caribou Recreation Department, will be held featuring a massive slide and 80-foot long inflatable obstacle course. Edible delights will be available at Merry England Tea Shoppe and Flowers.
More strawberry shortcake will be on sale, while maple syrup will be sold by Salmon Brook valley.
“Kids Teaching Kids,” a dance recital under the direction of Abby and Paige Small will be held at 12:30 p.m. at Teague Park.
Also among the Teague Park activities are Monkey Publishing readings and book signings, with burgers and fries sold by the American Legion Auxiliary and the U.S. Postal Service and CCC&I offering a commemorative pictorial cancellation stamp on the festival.
Pets available for adoption may be viewed at the Caribou Pet Rescue tent where CCC&I officials will be selling “nerdy” birds, which Landes declines to describe, but invites people to see them.
G-force Laser Tag also will be part of the Teague Park events.
In the evening, Virtual Managed Solutions LLC will hold a street dance from 6 to 10 p.m. while Napoli’s Pizza will offering on free slice of pizza for children aged 12 years old and under. Additional slices available for $1.
Sponsors for the annual chamber festival are Red’s Motorsports, Jim, Colleen and Mark Cyr, and Katahdin Trust Co.
For more information, contact the chamber at 498-6156.
