Back-to-School Movie Night

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

C.J. Rogers enjoys a delicious, but a little bit messy, funnel cake from the Leadership Warren food booth. (Margaret Hobbs and Charles W. Johnson photos)

It was a little like a drive-in movie, but without the cars, as another successful Leadership Warren Back-to-School Movie Night kicked off Saturday evening in the west lawn of Security Federal Bank. Activities and games started out at 6 p.m. with children of all ages taking advantage of the fun. Kids were throwing Frisbees, kicking around soccer balls, tossing inflatable beach balls and generally chasing around with the kind of energy typical for their age group, as they waited for the movie, “Shark Tales,” to start at 8 p.m.

Leadership Warren’s Jane Flatt said the group was pleased with the way the night turned out.

“The weather turned out to just be perfect,” Flatt said. “We were a little antsy because the weather forecast was a little iffy, but it turned out to be great.

“We had a really nice crowd, the weather was good the games went great,” Flatt added. “The kids love the games. Of course we had freebies and gave out different things to the children, bubbles and all that, so I think it went really well.”

Movie Night co-chair Barbara Page was also pleased to have another successful event under the organization’s collective belt.

“It seems like every year it gets bigger and better,” Page said. “This was our sixth year and we want to thank everyone that came out and supported Leadership Warren this year. The money that we raise from our food booth, that money provides funding that we put back into the community. With that we do projects like the Christmas Parade. We also do the youth leadership program, and we also have a youth scholarship program that we provide funding to.”

Page said the coloring contest was quite a success as well, with more entries than ever before.

“They were wonderful,” Page said. “The schools really supported us there.”

The winner in the 1st and 2nd grade category was Coby Spicer of Eastside, and taking first in the pre-school and kindergarten category was Viridiana Chavez of Centertown.

Page said, since the venue moved from downtown to the west lawn it was a bit hard to estimate numbers, but she did have at least one good indicator.

“We did sell more deep fried Oreos and funnel cakes than we ever have,” Page said. “So that’s pretty good.”