Learning Celebrated at CREATE’s Family Fun Day

Thousands flocked to CREATE’s third annual Family Fun Day at The Avenue at White Marsh Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The festival of crafts, food, games, musical performances and shopping tents raised funds to help educate children with learning disabilities.

All fair proceeds befitted CREATE, a Middle River-based non-profit organization, which stands for "Cultivating and Realizing Everyone’s Ability to Excel." The theme of this year’s event was "celebrate your style," with a special emphasis on embracing different learning styles. 

Crafts for children ranged from woodworking to face painting, while entertainment included a dance performance and two local bands, Nelly’s Echo and LVT. Companies such as Geico and set up tents to advertise their services. Several non-profit groups participated as well.

The displayed a fire truck and police car for children to explore, while the Maryland Zoo hosted an animal-themed tent. Poe the Baltimore Raven also made an appearance.

Five-year old Hailey, with some coaxing from her father, expressed her feelings about the festival crafts and dance performance. “I like the face painting and dancers,” she said.

Elaborate face painting was popular with children during the festival, although, perhaps even more popular, were the therapy dogs of Pets on Wheels. The dogs roamed around the festival with their handlers, delighting families.

Lisa Spielman, director of CREATE, managed the CREATE booth throughout the festival, passing out gift bags to children and  information to adults.

“The funds from this event go to workshops for children in local elementary schools to raise awareness about learning disabilities and differences,” Spielman said. “We’re expecting 7,000 [people] throughout the day—7,000 to 5,000.”

The festival is CREATE’s biggest fundraising event of the year. Aside from raising money, its main purpose is “raising awareness in the community about learning issues with children,” Spielman said. 

CREATE has already reached out to more than 13,000 children and the numbers only continue to rise, she added.