DMPS, Iowa Energy Partner to Promote Community Organizations
An estimated 2,000 people attended the first Community Resource Fair, hosted by DMPS and the Iowa Energy.
Assists are a key basketball statistic. They acknowledge the player who makes the pass that enables someone else to score. Saturday afternoon the students and families served by Des Moines Public Schools got tremendous assists from the Iowa Energy, Edco Community Credit Union, Ernst & Young and Sylvan Learning Centers.
Prior to the Energy’s game against the Canton Charge there was a Community Resource Fair on the concourse at Wells Fargo Arena, a veritable midway of area organizations with missions aimed at helping folks in all kinds of need.
The fair ran from 3:00-5:00 and was a swag bonanza complete with bizarre mascots working the crowd for photos and high-fives.
“Look at all this stuff I got,” said 3rd grader Owen Marchant, opening wide. “This is like ‘trick-or-treat!’”
Then, after everyone had filled their tote bags with fridge magnets, brochures, pens and candy, they were granted free admission to the basketball game where East students made up the color guard, Lincoln High School supplied the National Anthem singers and North High School manned the fan tunnel that welcomed the Energy players to the floor.
“This costs the district and the exhibitors nothing,” said Ruth Wright, the DMPS Community in Schools Coordinator. “The Iowa Energy came to us with this idea to connect families with agency resources and introduce kids to the arena and the team at the same time. And they secured sponsors for the event, too.”
There was a special emphasis by the exhibitors on upcoming summer programs and services, according to Wright.
Estimates were that more than 2,000 people attended the fair and most of them must have stayed for the game since the official attendance in excess of 6,600 was one of the Energy’s biggest crowds of the season. McCombs Middle School alone shuttle bussed a contingent of more than 150 Golden Eagle students, staff and families! Visiting Canton won the game, 108-101, but the Energy surely won some new fans among the 32,000+ DMPS students and 5,000+ staff the event targeted. Everyone involved was calling for an encore.
“We hope this is going to become an annual event,” Wright said.
Behind her, “Surge,” the home team’s high-voltage mascot, nodded in thumbs-up agreement.
