The entire Wrangell family — consisting of parents, kids, siblings, elders, community members and more — is invited to the Family Resilience Fair at the Nolan Center next month.
BRAVE, a domestic violence prevention organization whose name stands for Building Respect And Valuing Everyone, is hosting the fifth-annual fair on Nov. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. The event will feature prizes, family-centric games and informative booths from social service organizations in the area.
The upcoming fair is “a way for … agencies to connect with the community and let them know that they’re here and what they can offer,” explained BRAVE member and event organizer Kay Larson.
Community members can “learn about healthy relationships and the resources that are available to them when things aren’t going so great,” added BRAVE projects and services coordinator Maleah Nore.
But the fair isn’t just to help people undergoing times of crisis — Nore emphasized that it’s also a fun social space. The Nolan Center will be filled with activities, like a “massive” connect-four game, and attendees will have a chance to win prizes like games and household appliances. “(Parents) can have some time to themselves while their kids are doing the activities,” Nore said.
In the past, out-of-town organizations have flown in to share their offerings with Wrangell, like when representatives from the University of Alaska attended the event to raise awareness about scholarship opportunities for rural students.
Last year, the resilience fair featured representatives from 19 community organizations, including the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, the Girl Scouts, St. Frances Animal Rescue and Irene Ingle Public Library. The participant list “varies year by year,” said Nore, because “the resources that are available to our community vary year by year.”
The event will also provide a formal welcome to Wrangell’s newest, youngest and cutest community members. “We always celebrate the babies that are born between our last fair and this one,” Larson said. She encourages families with babies born since Sept. 11 of last year to contact BRAVE at 907-204-0530 to be recognized.
High-quality, lightly used clothes for infants and children will be available for free.
Though the event centers on family resilience, BRAVE has a broad, inclusive definition of what family means, and encourages all community members to attend. The fair is for “everybody,” said Larson. “The kids, the grandparents, the aunties, the uncles — everybody who cares about kids.”
“Elders … people with adult children, people with fur babies … basically the whole town of Wrangell feels like a family sometimes,” added Nore. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you need, you will be able to find something to help you at this fair.”
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