The Rotary Club of Slidell held its first Magic of Reading event on Saturday, March 8, 2025 from 11-2 in the John Wesley Center of Aldersgate United Methodist Church. It featured special celebrity story readers: Mayor Bill Borchart, Police Chief Randy Fandal, Fire Chief Chris Kaufman and others. Magician Mike entertained the children with his magic shows, and there were performances by the Slidell Synch Lawn Chair Brigade and the Crabby Daddies.
We had participation from twelve club members plus 14 other volunteers from the Salmen High Interact Club, Leadership Northshore, Delta Sigma Theta, and Inner Wheel. We had 10 agencies/entities participate in providing resources to parents and fun for kids, which included the Boys and Girls Club of Slidell, Louisiana Family Engagement, Safe Harbor and the Clerk of Court, Slidell Little Theater, Rainbow Childcare, Infinity Science Center, St. Tammany Children's Museum, and Fire District No. 1 and their robot. We had 4 activity centers, 2 featuring arts/crafts and 2 hosted by club members with interactive storytelling. Members of the Slidell Inner Wheel Club hosted a table where kids could create and decorate their own bookmarks and a local artist helped the kids create their own work of art. Several club members hosted our Rotary tent with information about Rotary in general and our club in particular.
We had more pizza, salad and chips than could be eaten (the jambalaya was a huge hit and we ran out of that) thanks to generous donations from Pizza Platoon, Olive Garden, NOLA Southern Grill and AWG. Representatives from the St. Tammany Parish library were also on hand to give out bags, issue bracelets to keep kids and parents together, give out books and allow families to obtain library cards if they didn't already have them.
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Slidell, LA 70458
United States of America