‘Family Fun Festival’ in Cortlandt Educates Parents

Daily Yorktown–

The Alliance for Safe Kids hosted a “Family Fun Festival” in Cortlandt, at the Colonial Terrace Mansion on Sunday. Incorporated in 2006, the agency has made it a goal to educate the Yorktown and Cortlandt area on hard-hitting adolescent issues like drugs, gangs and gambling.

“We didn’t really have a goal in mind,” said Executive Director Lisa Tomeny about the “Family Fun Festival” event in Cortlandt. “This was the first year, and of course, Mother Nature was not working with us yesterday,but we still had a nice family crowd, and it was a pretty fun and successful event.”

The event featured face-painting, costumed characters like Elmo, and a kids-buffet. ASK provided parents with tips on how to talk to kids about self-destructive behaviors, when the right time to start talking is, and provided information about resources for dealing with such problems.

“Our target really is across the spectrum in terms of grades,” said Tomeny, “One of the things we’d like to see more is getting information out while the kids are young. There are a lot of things that are connected when kids are K through 12 and beyond.”

ASK serves primarily the Yorktown Central School District, along with parts of Cortlandt. ASK will be providing information to parents while families gear up for the “back to school” season, and looks forward to another community-oriented event in the late fall.