Looking Forward To Fall ~ Voice Of The Township
It’s hard to believe, but fall is just a few days away now. Aren’t we all asking, “Where did the summer go?”
The Wayne Township Trustee Office has been very busy over the past few months of the summer season including bringing our informational booth to the Labor Day Picnic at Headwaters Park and hosting the community at our annual Family Fun Day in our office parking lot on a sunny day in late July. There we gave out scholarships and academic encouragement awards to students returning to school this fall, and we awarded our first Person of the Year Award to Homeless Advocate, Sally Segerson.
In late July, to help people prepare for the start of school, we partnered with Adams Township Trustee, Denita Washington, for a new event at the Walmart Supercenter at Southtown Crossing called “Shopping with the Trustee.” This event paired families of children with township staff members to shop for needed back-to-school clothes. Each child received a $100 gift card to buy new school clothes. This was a community effort and Trustee Washington and Trustee Austin Knox expressed their appreciation to, “The Edna Fund, Hakuna Matata Fund, Richard D. Waterfield & Marni McKinney Charitable Fund, and the Four D Endowment fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne who helped make this event possible.”
Autumn means many things to us here at Wayne Township: kids needing school supplies and clothes, the return of the heating season, the shorter days and longer nights that often bring a greater demand for electricity. It’s a serious business, but this time of year is fun for us, too.
September is when we go into full gear preparing for the holidays with our Christmas Bureau participation, and our Ham and Turkey giveaway and Holiday Skating Party, both in December. At the skating event we will be celebrating not only the joy of the holiday season but also the coming 2024 school semester when students can begin applying for our annual Richard A. Stevenson, Sr. Scholarships to be presented next summer. Also, we will begin taking applications for our Academic Encouragement Award for students younger than the high school seniors.
These celebrations are lots of fun for children, and for the adults who get to watch their children celebrate the season as they party with food and gifts, and skate their hearts out at Bell’s Roller Rink. All of this is free to the participants, and we do it without using Wayne Township tax dollars. Instead, we appeal to our community partners, who step up better every year to give the kids of our township the happiest of holidays. Donors send us monetary contributions as well as prizes, both educational and “just for fun” gifts, and all of our contributors are recognized at the party.
We are excited to be hosting the Holiday Celebration again this year, and we look forward to having the community join us in giving a happy holiday and a bit of encouragement to the young people of Wayne Township.
But, let’s not rush the season! We hope you enjoy the coming autumn with its crisp temperatures, beautiful colors, and exciting winds as Mother Nature puts on the best show of all.
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