By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
Otsego Summer Fun Nights—a collaborative effort between the City of Otsego, Otsego Public Schools and Otsego Main Street—provided free entertainment for families and free meals for children on Wednesday evenings during the summer.
It also played a role in helping dozens of students start the new school year on a positive note.
Funds left over from the Summer Fun Nights program were used to purchase 100 backpacks, which were stuffed with school supplies and given to away to students in advance of the OPS’s first day of classes on Monday, Aug. 15.
Otsego City Manager Aaron Mitchell and OPS food service coordinator Julie Guthrie spearheaded the effort.
“The creation and involvement with this program in coordination with Julie Guthrie is one of my proudest achievements during my time in Otsego,” Mitchell said. “It fills a need within the community that is often neglected.
“The whole Otsego Summer Fun Nights program has really been a great opportunity to help families within the community. The kids and parents alike were incredibly appreciative of having brand new backpacks and supplies. Many were surprised to have this occur in a town of Otsego’s size.”
Walmart helped with program by providing backpacks for half price.
“We initially thought we had some backpacks available, but it wasn’t until a week before did we realize that we needed 100 backpacks to make this event go on as planned,” Mitchell said. “After shopping around at a few locations, we were able to get the backpacks from Walmart making this plan a reality.
“Walmart and their local management have been incredibly generous to the City of Otsego in the past and it is greatly appreciated.”
Parker Hannifin also donated some additional backpacks.
The idea for the backpack giveaway was formed during the initial meetings for the Otsego Summer Fun Nights program.
Once numbers were crunched and the cost of the Summer Fun Nights program were accounted for, it looked like there might be some money left from that which was donated by the program’s sponsors. That’s when the possibility of providing backpacks and school supplies was raised.
“One of the main focuses of (the Summer Fun Nights) program was to help families with free meals and entertainment during a time of high cost of gas and food,” Mitchell said. “An increased cost of back-to-school supplies was expected. So, we thought that anything we could offer Otsego families, would be appreciated.
“This was a totally new idea. I do not remember hearing something like this previously occurring in Otsego.”
And while this year’s Summer Night Nights program wrapped up just a few weeks ago, discussions will soon begin about improvements that can be made for next year.
“We heard some really good reviews for the presentations and acts that we had in town,” Mitchell said. “The volunteers made it possible, but the logistics of trying to put on a weekly performance was demanding. Julie Guthrie, (Otsego Main Street executive director) Kahler Sweeney and myself had to emcee the event and fill in the blanks as needed and having a different type of presentation or performance each week took a toll on us.
“We are grateful we did it, but going forward we are going to have to streamline some of the preparation and setups.”
