Written by Elisha Frazer
Photos by Katherine Rountree, Crosby Ignasher and Melissa Brown
The 33rd annual Sidewalk Arts Festival would not be complete without the Sidewalk Arts Children’s Kid Zone. Between all the inflatable attractions and the children’s tent, kids joined the SCAD festival fun all afternoon.
SCAD Serve decided to go “above and beyond” this year with their “Around the World in 80 Days”-inspired children’s tent.
Tyler Burgett, a third-year game development major from Madison, Mississippi filled District in with some of the activities Serve had prepared for the afternoon. Burgett is the Pet Project coordinator at Serve and has been participating in the children’s tent since 2013.
“We put up a large scale tent [where we have] certain events,” Burgett said. “The children enter, they get a passport and [then] they go to each activity. And at each activity they get a stamp on their passport for doing [it]. In the end they get a prize.”
Serve chose stages from all over the globe — including England, Egypt and Australia — to represent this year. The Brazilian Rainforest stage may have been their biggest one yet, with a massive obstacle course extending beyond the parameters of the tent itself. Serve’s sustainability coordinator, Ivania Castillo, had the privilege of creating the rainforest obstacle this year.
A fourth-year interior design student from Miami, Florida, Castillo designed the rainforest so that kids could get up and be active.
“The idea behind it is that every station that the kids are at in the obstacle course, they are acting like an animal in the rain forest,” said Castillo. “And so they act like monkeys, they walk like leopards, they hop like frogs and then they slither like a snake.”
The families and kids of Savannah appreciated all of Serve’s hard work, too. Savannah mom Erin was busy running around with her 4-year-old son, Mason, who was enthusiastic about the whole experience.
“We try to come out every year,” Erin said. “I like it. There is so much going on, he can’t seem to settle on one thing, but he likes it.” Mason spent a lot of time playing mummy bowling and going through the obstacles.
Although the younger ones couldn’t draw anything on the sidewalks this year, they had much to say about the art they saw. SCAD employee Greg Samson and his grandchildren 7-year-old Aleia, 5-year-old Daivion, and Demtree, who’s 2, especially loved the animal-themed art pieces.
“I like how they draw,” Aleia said with a smile. “Like the lion. I loved all the SCAD ones.”
“Me too,” Daivion added. “My favorite was the clown dog!”
Demtree didn’t have much to say, but according to Samson he had the time of his life running around Forsyth.
Samson, like most SCAD families, is just happy to have a place to take kids that’s safe and in the fresh air.
“SCAD’s Arts festival is really great for the community,” he said. “Not only is it free, but it’s something kids can do that they can enjoy with the fresh air in Savannah.”
