Splash pad, food trucks and free fun: Community invited to Swansea YMCA's Spirit Day

SWANSEA — The Stoico/FIRSTFED YMCA isn't just in the community. It's excited to show that it's very much part of the community.

On Saturday, June 1, the Y will be holding its first Spirit Day at its sprawling 36-acre facility at 271 Sharps Lot Road. The hours are 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is free.

The lineup of activities and offerings is designed to create a lot of smiles and satisfied palates:

• Touch a truck
• Baseball
• Outdoor pickleball.
• Food trucks
• Dunk tank
• Vendors
• Opening day of the splash pad

“The staff and board volunteers cannot wait to bring the community together in our first Spirit Day at the Stoico Firstfed YMCA,” says Stephanie Mancini, senior executive director YMCA Southcoast for Swansea/Fall River. “We are inviting the entire community to share in what our beautiful property and facility have to offer.”

Teamwork and hard work, Mancini said, have brought this event together. She said a 10-member committee has, since March, been pulling all the pieces together, after first figuring out just what those pieces needed to be. It involved recruiting vendors and organizations for the day as well as promoting the event on social media, media outlets, face-to-face and word of mouth.

“We went to businesses and recruited using an organization recruitment form,” Mancini said. “Hopefully the experience will be so positive that more organizations will reach out to join us next year.”

Ready to make a splash: Swansea YMCA excited for its new addition

Here is the list of participants and those businesses/organizations offerings:

Swansea EMS, Medflight; Massachusetts State Police, touch-a-truck; Swansea and Somerset police departments, touch-a-truck; Swansea Police Department, emotional support dog; Swansea Fire Department, fire truck touch-a-truck; EMS, touch-a-truck; Shawmut Metal, crane touch-a-truck; Swansea Public Works Department; touch-a-truck; Swansea Animal Shelter, dog adoption.

BayCoast Bank, blue bus; Southcoast Open Air Market, Art Pop; Boys Town, information table; Gnome Surf, information table; Dek Hockey, information table; Home Depot, building something; School of Rock, information table; Sage Lane Apothecary, information table and goods for sale; Primrose and Ruth Floral Design, information table and goods for sale; AAA, information table; Robitaille Dental, information and giveaways; YMCA, information table; Blue Star Families, information table.

Activities include: splash pad; Axel Dance, dance; outdoor pickleball demos; boxing; dunk tank; baseball games; Zumba.

Steve Rodericks will provide live music entertainment.

The food vendors are No Joke Smoke BBQ and Green Jar Cocina (Mexican), and the YMCA's own snack shack (cold drinks, candy, hot dogs, French fries, chicken tenders).

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Splash pad, food trucks and free fun: Community invited to Swansea YMCA's Spirit Day