While moving the planned Kids Fest outdoor festival to an inside venue because of rain proved successful, that change led directly to an uninvited guest showing up: carbon monoxide.
The detection of the poisonous and flammable gas in the Reeves Community Center gymnasium Saturday prompted the temporary closure of that area, where five large bounce houses — originally intended for Riverside Park — had been set up, powered by generators.
This caused a buildup of carbon monoxide in the gym, which led the Mount Airy Fire Department to prohibit entry for about an hour by eager children and parents wanting to converge on the bounce houses.
Routine testing using a gauge revealed the carbon monoxide to be at a troubling level, according to Assistant Chief/Fire Marshal Chris Fallaw, who was on the scene with other city firefighters.
“It wasn’t going to kill anybody,” Fallaw summed-up concerning the threat posed, but could have made someone sick.
The bounce houses are a popular attraction of Kids Fest, an annual gathering aimed at getting children away from electronic devices and out of the house for four hours of fun at the local park.
But organizers with Mount Airy Parks and Recreation announced Friday that the event would be moved indoors to the Kidz Room and gym at the community center, with the latter room devoted to the air-filled bounce houses.
Although the largest generator used for powering blowers to inflate the bounce houses was placed outside, that still caused a problem linked to a fan, Kim Wilson of Mount Airy Parks and Recreation said.
“Because of the fan, it was coming into the gym,” Wilson explained regarding the carbon monoxide, which is odorless, colorless and tasteless — yet dangerous.
When the disturbing level of CO was detected, the decision was made by fire personnel to keep Kids Fest attendees out of the gym until it could be sufficiently ventilated, Fallaw said.
No repercussions resulted.
“They caught it before anything was an issue,” Wilson said.
Afterward, it was business as usual for Kids Fest, which marked its 15th year Saturday.
“Thank you to the fire department for making sure we were able to keep the event going safely,” city Parks and Recreation Director Peter Raymer observed.
Fallaw, the fire official, said the carbon monoxide situation should not detract from the success of Kids Fest overall.
“This is an unfortunate thing,” he commented.
Show goes on
Despite the carbon monoxide hiccup, Kids Fest 2024 turned out “excellent,” according to Wilson, family services supervisor for Mount Airy Parks and Recreation.
“We’ve had quite a crowd,” she said, adding that the event offered about half of the attractions to youngsters which would have been available at Riverside Park.
Of course, there was no fishing in the Ararat River as promised, but there was still the bounce houses, dancing, basketball and soccer skill challenges, a mariachi band, a magician, face painting, a clown twisting balloons into colorful shapes and more, creating a joyous scene.
It was enough to attract Jason Romero and his three children, the oldest of whom is 10.
Romero, a former New York resident now of Mount Airy, said he came “to get the kids out and about and have fun.”
Kids Fest was sponsored by Surry Collaborative, a grouping of various community-based organizations, families, service providers, health-care providers, public agencies and advocates.
It is committed to working together to meet the needs of local youth, adults and families.
Groups set up stations at Kids Fest to distribute information about their programs.
The Surry Arts Council also was among organizations with a presence at Saturday’s event, represented by Salem Poindexter, its director of operations. She marveled at how Kids Fest was able to overcome the rain and logistical challenges.
“I was just thinking, it’s all going extremely well.”
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