Loose balloons floated off into the clear sky overhead, and the smell of buttery popcorn was inescapable Saturday during the town’s 28th annual Natick Days community celebration.
Families filled the town center on Sept. 19 to play games, eat food, jump in bouncy castles, and more.
Over 130 local nonprofits and businesses from high school clubs to cultural organizations set up booths surrounding the Natick Common and lining Central Street.
Choul Ngoal, a former Natick resident, said the event gave him the opportunity to connect with his community and bond with his two daughters.
“It’s such a great experience to be here with many different faces,” Ngoal said. “Some are very familiar, some are not, but overall it just brings joy.”
While most of the activities were geared towards young kids, many of the booths were run by teenagers fundraising for their sports teams, theater groups and nonprofits.
“It’s really fun to see all the different age kids and all their different booths for their school projects, for their school events,” said Nancy Marshall, who went with her daughter and 2-year-old grandson. “It’s fun for all ages.”
Shresta Chakilam, 17, a senior at Natick High School, was at Natick Days to promote GrowWithGuidance, a nonprofit she founded two years ago to connect high school students with free college and career mentors.
“Natick is such a powerful community with people who are just willing to support others,” Shresta said. ”I think that it’s amazing to hear about all the different organizations here and how we’re all just working to make the world a better place.”
For the Chakilams, Natick Days was a family affair. A few stalls down from GrowWithGuidance, Shresta’s younger sister, 13-year-old Ishitha, had a stand selling handmade accessories for her business, Pink Ribbon Jewelry.
An 8th grade student at Wilson Middle School, Ishitha grew up coming to Natick Days every year, but this year was her first on the other side of the booth, she said.
“It seemed like such a big event, and it would be so cool to actually have a stall here and actually sell here,” Ishitha said.
Lauren Meurer, director of the Recreation and Parks department that organizes Natick Days, said the event was created as an opportunity for local nonprofits to fundraise on one big day at the town common, and it typically raises about $30,000 annually for participating nonprofits.
“It’s the most Natick-centered day in town,” she said.
Many of the nonprofit groups have been participating in Natick Days for its entire 28-year history, Meurer said.
The Natick Sons and Daughters of Italy come every year to sell hundreds of its famous Italian subs every year to raise money for scholarship funds that go to local students.
“People look for us,” said Adrienne Jones, a resident and volunteer with the Natick Sons and Daughters of Italy. “They come and go, ‘I need my subs, I need my subs.’”
“It just makes you feel like you’re part of a really vibrant community with a lot of diversity in it.”
This year was the first Natick Days for several organizations including the Natick Chinese Association.
“I think it’s a good opportunity for us to showcase our nonprofit organization, so we can show the Natick residents we have the Natick Chinese Association,” said the group’s president Hillary Zhang.
“Today we actually attracted quite a few Asian residents,” Zhang said. “They didn’t know our name before because previously it’s only in a local WeChat group.”
Volunteers at the organization’s booth taught guests how to use a Chinese yo-yo, play pitch-pot, a game where players throw arrows into a pot, and make traditional paper crafts.
Julie Wilson, 7, of Natick, learned how to cut out a butterfly design from red paper with the Chinese Association after she took a turn on a bouncy castle and got the chance to ring the bell in the First Congregational Church.
“Good weather, friendly atmosphere, multiple tents of an array of different cultures,” Julie’s father James Wilson, said. “Seems like it’s going pretty smoothly.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Natick Report and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.