For the first time in nearly a decade, a festival geared towards children is returning to Greene County, under the oversight of State Rep. Pam Snyder.

 Snyder’s Kids Fest will take place April 28 at the Greene County Fairgrounds, featuring more than 50 tables from different organizations. Amy Hopkins, legislative assistant, approached Snyder with the idea of hosting Kids Fest late last year, after a similar event stopped running in 2011.

“Last October, another staff member and I were talking about how there is nothing out there for kids,” Hopkins said. “We are both mothers and we came up with the idea [of Kids Fest] and we pitched it to the representative and she said ‘let’s run it.’”

Once the idea was approved, Hopkins said roughly 100 organizations were contacted in request to hold a table at the festival.

“We have reached out to about 100 organizations to participate,” Hopkins said. “Right now we have, I would say, 50 tables that are going to be used for organizations…there are a lot of different organizations from Greene County

that will be there.”

According to Hopkins, some of the organizations that will be attending include Early Intervention, Greene County Family Center, Communities that Care and many others.

“Really, a lot of Greene County organizations throughout the county will be there with information about different programs that the county has to offer,” Hopkins said. “We do have different organizations, as well, outside the county [that will be attending].”

Hopkins said that each table will have activities children can participate in while their parents or chaperones, can learn more about the organizations.

“The activity is there to interact with the kids while the parents get information,” Hopkins said. “If you wanted to learn more about the pool, the Greene County Department of Recreation is going to have some different things there and [parents are] going to get the information from them while [their] kids are entertained.”

In addition to the variety of organizations to be present, Hopkins said that Snyder will hold a storybook reading for the children, with each child receiving a free book. Also, a free lunch will be provided to attendees from Subway.

While the event is tailored for children under the age of 14, Hopkins said the inaugural event will be used as a gauge to determine if it would be of interest to older children as well.

“I wasn’t really sure if any older kids would be interested,” Hopkins said. “If we do have any turn out [of older children] that will give me something I can change for next year – we can grow on that. I did have ideas for [older children] but we don’t know what the age range [will be].”

Hopkins said that she expects a turnout of around 300 individuals and is hopeful that Kids Fest will become an annual event in the community.

The festival will be held at the Greene County Fairgrounds from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine, Saturday, April 28.