It was a beautiful and warm day at Goett Family Park for this year’s annual Fall Festival hosted by the Southern Highlands Community Association. Held on Saturday, Oct. 15, the seasonal celebration featured Halloween-themed inflatables and carnival-style games, bounce houses and slides, a rock-climbing wall, bungee, craft and coloring contest, face painting, costume contests, plenty of pumpkins, field games, vendor booth trick-or-treating, music, food, drinks, entertainment, and plenty of fun for the whole family.
Attended by hundreds of Southern Highlands families from the surrounding neighborhoods, the free community-focused event also served as a fundraiser to benefit two local charities – Andson and Operation Warm Heart. Andson provides innovative academic and financial literacy programs for young people in Southern Nevada and Operation Warm Heart, an impactful non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to local airmen and their families at Creech and Nellis Air Force Base. Through raffle ticket sales, donations and more, $XXX was ultimately raised for Andson and X# of gas cards were purchased and donated to Operation Warm Heart.
One of the most popular happenings at the Fall Festival is the raffle. This year’s prizes included Apple AirPods, a MetaQuest 2 virtual reality headset, an electric scooter, a beginner’s telescope, Lego sets, and more.
Creativity was on full display with imaginative costumes spotted throughout the event including favorite characters from television and movies, an abundance of superheroes, pirates, scary skeletons, fairy princesses, butterflies, witches, clowns, and more. Families also enjoyed picking out the perfect pumpkin.
Having fun certainly works up an appetite. Popular food trucks including Belle Isle Smokin Barbecue, Custom Pizza, Somethin’ to Taco ‘Bout, Alpha Dawg and All We Do is Wing were on hand to keep attendees satisfied.
An official Fox 5 Take 5 to Care event guest emceed by reporters Regina Ahn and Alexis Fernandez, throughout the day, live performances from Las Vegas Circus Center and Southern Highland’s GOTTA Dance Studio kept event attendees amazed and enthusiastically entertained.
“This event is a great time for families,” said Matthew Falco, title here. “Even better, we are raising money and awareness for two very impactful non-profits here in southern Nevada. Given the backslide students faced this year, Andson’s work has never been more important, and with the large veteran and military community here, it’s important for us to support Operation Warm Heart and ensure our military families have what they need.”