The Home & Garden Festival is a perennial favorite in Chestnut Hill, serving as the unofficial harbinger of spring. Amongst the beautiful blooms, merry music, and fantastic food, the children invariably find the Kid’s Zone, where they rip off their shoes and run to the bounce house.
This year, Jenks Academy for the Arts and Sciences is happy to announce that the school will host its annual Fun Fest during the Home & Garden Festival. The Chestnut Hill Business Association invited Jenks to “take over” this popular portion of the festival.
“We are so excited to partner with Jenks Academy during this year’s Home & Garden Festival! We hope that Northwest families will come out for the extra fun offerings the Jenks team is planning, and we also hope that this year’s partnership will be a growing annual collaboration with the school,” said Hillary O’Carroll of the Chestnut Hill Business District.
The Fun Fest is geared towards children 10 and under and will take place in the school yard alongside the playground at Jenks, located at 8301 Germantown Ave., where parents will be able to enjoy food trucks and sit while their children play. The extravaganza will feature an inflatable obstacle course and giant slide, carnival games, face-painting, raffle baskets, music, and dancing. Family-friendly snacks will be sold, and the food trucks will offer a variety for adults and children. In addition, there will be performances by the Jenks Step Team, the DIAMONDS, and local dance studio SNAPCo, which offers dance and theater classes.
“The Jenks Fun Fest is our largest fundraiser and historically has been held on a Saturday in the spring. This year, we thought that combining our event with the ever-popular Home & Garden Festival would increase foot traffic to our fantastic school, as well as amplify the family-friendly aspect of the festival,” said Janel Baselice, president of the Friends of Jenks, a Jenks parent and a Chestnut Hill resident.
The Fun Fest is organized by the combined efforts of the Friends of Jenks and the Jenks Home and School Association, and will be run by a team of volunteers that includes staff, faculty, and students. Jenks Academy principal Corinne Scioli is looking forward to experiencing her first Fun Fest and has been happy to support the volunteers who are helping to put it together. “We are so appreciative of the Chestnut Hill Business Association and their willingness to help put the FUN in fundraising! We know it will be a successful and enjoyable event,” Scioli said.
The Jenks Fun Fest will have a ticket tent so that families can purchase tickets for their children to enjoy the many festivities being offered. All proceeds from this event will benefit the Jenks Academy, a K-8 elementary school that is part of the School District of Philadelphia. For more information on the Fun Fest and ways you can donate or volunteer, please visit www.friendsofjsjenks.org/funfest.
