Going down the water slide!
Courtesy of the Newberry Jaycees
The Newberry Jaycees celebrated the summer with a special day at the City of Newberry’s Gully Washer Splash Park.
Courtesy of the Newberry Jaycees
NEWBERRY — The Newberry Jaycees celebrated the summer with a special day at the City of Newberry’s Gully Washer Splash Park. In an effort to impact the local community with its projects, the Jaycees invited children with special needs, cognitive delays, and challenges to enjoy the facilities at no cost to them.
The Jaycees worked with the City of Newberry Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department to determine logistics of the event that brought over 20 kids and their families to the new facility.
“The city was a great partner in this project and really made this event possible,” said Daniel Nicholson, a Jaycee member.
The Gully Washer Splash Park offered perfect facilities for the project including the fenced in water park and shelter for the attendees to enjoy lunch in.
The event was a celebration of the culmination of summer for these kids and their family. Following some time at the Splash Park, the Jaycees offered the kids and families a free lunch that included pizzas, chips, cookies, water and Capri Sun.
Newberry Jaycees work to build individual members through hosting community impacting projects. These include a number of different events throughout the year; however, a major state philanthropy project is the South Carolina Jaycees Camp Hope. The camp is located on Lake Hartwell in South Carolina and offers individuals with an intellectual disability age seven or older the opportunity to have summer camp experience. The South Carolina Jaycees have provided financial support for every camper attending Jaycee Camp Hope since 1969.
“This project was just a fun way to spend the day,” said Madison Blaschke, the project chairman. “We wanted it to be impactful without a huge ordeal. Doing this event is a great thing and is something we are already looking to possibly expand on in the future.”
Blaschke went on to say, “seeing the kids light up when they got to shoot people with water, and seeing these children get to engage and interact with other kids and families was a huge reward.”
For more information on projects the Newberry Jaycees have coming up to support the community contact them at [email protected] or follow and reach out to the organization on social media.