United Way Fox Cities' Emerging Leaders Valentine's Family Festival is free and open to the public! Please join us for the fun this Saturday, February 8th!

Contributor: Nanci Micke, United Way Fox Cities Vice President of Marketing and Communications

Holidays are a special time for children. There is something magical about an ordinary day becoming a holiday to enjoy and share with family and friends.

It was the desire of our United Way Emerging Leaders to give all children the opportunity to have a happy valentine's day that gave birth to the Valentine Family Festival. The Emerging Leaders are young - many have little children of their own or are just starting their families. They are passionate about the idea of having all children be able to come to an event where they can play games, dance, create art, decorate cookies and top it all off with lunch at no cost to the family.

And so it has been for the past four years that hundreds of children have had their faces painted, received balloons from clowns that have been twisted into animal shapes, tossed balls, used glitter and glue, dipped the fishing pole behind the curtain, and have eaten the beautiful cookies that they so lovingly decorated.

If you have a child between the ages of 2 and 12 in your life, we invite you to join us this Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Maplewood Middle School in Menasha. Mittens, hats and books will be given to each child. We are hoping you can create a happy family valentine memory of your own. 

Download & Print the 2014 Valentine's Family Festival Poster