Mayor Mitchell Jordan is hosting the “Love Thy Neighbor – A Fun Day At The Park” event to bring awareness to special needs children and families.
“This is a campaign promise that I’m keeping, ” Jordan said. “I want to be a voice to the voiceless. In my years serving on Palestine City Council I noticed that it was rare for me to see special needs individuals at various city and community events. I wanted to host an event to celebrate, make them feel welcome and supported and to bring awareness to their needs and what they are going through.”
Jordan said that he and his team had put together this community event to help him find out what he can do as mayor to make life better for special needs children and their families.
“Sometimes it can be a simple thing the city has overlooked,” Jordan said. “I recently spoke to one individual who said she had been disabled most of her life and receives funds from the government on a certain type of card that the city doesn’t accept, but she can use to pay her electric bill, phone bill, etc., everything but her water bill. City Hall simply didn’t know that this was an issue. So this is about hearing the types of issues, big or small, that could make a world of difference to one or many people with special needs.”
Jordan said they would have food, including 1,000 hot dogs, drinks, cotton candy, popcorn, games, four bounce houses, music, a petting zoo and a balloon artist from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5 at Reagan Park. Jordan said members of the Palestine Police and Fire Departments would be present for the event, along with several vendors like the Resource Center to educate about programs that are available and a station to help people register to vote.
This event is completely free, however, Jordan is asking everyone that is able to bring non-perishables and canned goods to donate to those in need this Thanksgiving.
“The weather forecast looks like it will be another beautiful day,” Jordan said. “We are hoping that this will be something we can do again in the future.”
Jordan said volunteers are still needed to help with this event and those needing community service hours could get credit for setting up, working during the event and for cleanup after the event was over.
Those that would like to help and/or volunteer are encouraged to attend a meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2 in Reagan Park.
For more information, contact Mitchell Jordan at 903-221-4591.
