EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) – The YMCA Indoor Sports Center was filled with laughter, live music and joy on Sunday as more than 300 people attended the first ‘Back to School Bash’ in Eau Claire.
Foster and adoptive families had the chance to get support from many family-focused organizations, and also had a little fun.
One of the organizations is Jockey Being Family, which is presenting this national event to bring these families together.
“They have a non-profit side to their business that is specific to foster and adoptive families, across the nation really, so we have partnered with them for the Back to School Bash this year,” said Journey’s assistant coordinator Lydia Deering, “this is the Journey’s program which is a program of Catholic Charities with the Diocese of La Crosse.”
But this is the first year the program brought it to Eau Claire.
“Our program has partnered with Jockey Being Family for about 15 years, so this was something that they started up a few years ago, and we really wanted to bring it to the Eau Claire area, it’s been in some other major cities, so we really wanted to bring it closer to home for us,” said Deering.
The Back to School Bash is meant to create a welcoming environment for the families to get to know each other, as well as connect with the volunteers.
“I love meeting them and putting faces to names because I do the registrations behind the scenes, so I see a lot of these names come through multiple times for all of these events in Eau Claire, so it’s nice to put a face with the name,” said Liz Rietschel, Journey’s event specialist.
The Back to School Bash is a place of fun activities for families, but also provides a backpack filled with school supplies for each child in Kindergarten to eighth grade.
“It’s been really fun to see kids have some fun, it’s a pretty hot day outside so it’s nice that we’re inside in the cool and that they’re able to just enjoy themselves,” said Deering.
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‘Back to School Bash’ celebrates foster and adoptive families
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