NEW BERLIN – New Berlin will celebrate its 49th annual Youth Days this weekend. The fun starts with the Miss Youth Days Pageant on Thursday, followed by fireworks and midway rides Friday, a child’s fair and parade Saturday and a food drive with a bike give-away on Sunday.
On Thursday, Youth Days kicks off at 6 p.m. in the Unadilla Valley High School auditorium with the Miss Youth Days Pageant and presentations of the ‘Youth of the Year’ and ‘Citizen of the Year’ awards.
The event is sponsored by the New Berlin Youth Days Committee and is organized by Sheila Randall.
“We hope the community will come show their support Thursday night as this year’s Youth Days gets into full swing. We’ll be announcing the Youth and Citizen of the Year following the first round,” said Randall.
The rest of the community carnival takes place through the weekend on the grounds of Milford Academy in downtown New Berlin on South Main Street.
Friday marks the opening of several main attractions, including the food booths which open at noon and midway rides that begin at 6 p.m.
Sand and water games will be held at the Millbrook Reservoir from 1 to 3 p.m. and the watermelon eating contest will start at the New Berlin Firehouse at 5 p.m. Live country music by the Country Limits Band will also begin at 6 p.m. along the midway,
Youth Days Committee President Larissa Hanslmaier said a major change from last year’s event is that the fireworks show behind Milford Academy will take place Friday night at dark instead of Saturday.
Another change in this year’s celebration is that all adult rides will be a dollar and children’s rides will be 50 cents. Also for the first time, this year’s organizers have planned a special “Kid’s Fair” Saturday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
“The idea behind Youth Days is to provide a local and cheap event for our community and their children, because many kids don’t get a chance to go outside the area for this kind of hometown fair experience,” said Hanslmaier.
Village of New Berlin Youth Commissioner and Trustee Terry Potter said the “Kid’s Fair” will include a wide range of free activities and the participation of several community groups.
“There will be various vendors, child care consultations and how to properly install car seats, the New Berlin PD will be talking about bike safety and giving away free helmets, there will be other free things like mood pencils as well as some of the vendors having kid featured items, face painting, Clifford the Big Red Dog will be there with a character from ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ the New Berlin library will be giving away free books – there’s just a lot of things – even a free lunch for participating children,” said Potter.
Potter explained that children who sign up to participate in the morning’s events will be eligible to receive a free lunch at the concession booth between 11:30 and 1 p.m. The event is being called a “Teddy Bear Picnic” said Potter and children are encouraged to bring their favorite stuffed animal to the lunch.
Saturday will see the annual Youth Days Parade step off at 5 p.m. down New Berlin’s Main Street.
Parade organizer Roger Chase said this year’s parade will involve dozens of floats from 16 different fire departments from Chenango, Otsego, Madison and Broome counties. This year’s Class C Sherburne Pageant of Band winner, Laurens High School, will also be in the procession along with several other schools, veterans groups and area businesses.
On Sunday, parents are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item to the carnival. Those who do will become eligible to register for a girl and boy free bike drawing. All the donated food will go to the Unadilla Valley Food Pantry, which is organized by several area churches.
All proceeds for Youth Days go directly to benefiting the participating youth groups within Chenango County. Groups wanting to receive some of the proceeds need to volunteer their time to make Youth Days possible.