Itasca Family Day encourages families to help families

On the surface, Itasca Family Day is exactly what it sounds like: a community event designed for families to enjoy spending time together.

But Itasca Family Day comes with a purpose that, too, is all about Itasca families.

The event Saturday, Aug. 13, aims to raise money for the Itasca Community Outreach Team while reminding those who join the festivities that they have neighbors in need.

The Itasca Community Outreach Team works directly with residents in extreme need, seeking to solve the problems causing financial insecurity and to empower people and families so they become self-reliant.

Volunteers choose individual families to help, then turn to other organizations, churches and community groups to secure support.

The outreach team of volunteers works with three other organizations under the umbrella of Itasca Cares to offer coordinated care in Itasca with emergency financial aid, a food pantry and a DuPage PADS homeless shelter site, says Erik Engel, who co-founded the organization with Megan Seridan and Ellen Glatz.

To help support the cause, volunteers have put together Itasca Family Day. From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday in Usher Park, Irving Park Road and Walnut Street, families can sample the flavors of up to 10 food trucks or secure a cement square and express themselves with sidewalk chalk art. Other attractions include music and face painting, Engel said.

"It will truly be a family event without alcohol being sold and all the local churches showing up to support it," Engle said.

Families can reserve a 5-foot-by-5-foot sidewalk square for a $20 donation that includes chalk and admission for two adults to the food truck area. Food truck admission is $5 for two adults in advance or $5 per adult at the event. Children 13 and younger are admitted free. Tickets are available in advance at the Itasca Library, 500 W. Irving Park Road.

Ticket sales and sidewalk square donations will help the Itasca Community Outreach Team help individual families through tough times by assisting with expenses that otherwise might cause a family to go without buying food or paying the rent or mortgage.

For example, the group helped a young widow repair her driveway so she could refinance her mortgage and keep her family in their home. The group also rallied around the parents of a child with cancer, providing diapers and meals to ease the financial strain while the parents were paying for medical treatments.

For more information about Itasca Community Outreach Team or Itasca Family Day, visit ItascaCares.org.