ASHLAND — Ashland Main Street is plunging into the back-to-school hullabaloo.
The organization, aimed at revitalizing Ashland’s downtown area, hosts a Back-2-School Celebration on Aug. 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the west end of Main Street.
The event will feature activities such as free haircuts, interactions with a mermaid, a dunk tank, face painting and a display of government-owned trucks and vehicles.
Sandra Tunnell, the organization’s executive director, said the event is also a sort of follow up from United Way’s Stuff the Bus event, which occurred Aug. 7-8.
“We got a bunch of school supplies,” she said. The actual figure was more than 600 bags of school supplies.
The celebration will offer students free backpacks and separate packages of school supplies. There are around 500 backpacks available. Tunnell said there were so many people coming together to help kids, so Ashland Main Street thought, “Can we consolidate?”
“We really want to work toward Ashland County being known as the place kids don’t have to worry about not having supplies for the school year,” Tunnell said.
The event will be available for all K-12 students in Ashland County.
The following dates account for the first day of instruction for school districts across the county. For more information, click on each district’s link:
• Aug. 18: Mapleton Local School District
• Aug. 18, 19, 24: Crestview Local Schools
• Aug. 24, 25, 26: Loudonville-Perrysville Exempted Village Schools
• Aug. 30: Ashland City Schools
• Aug. 31: Black River Local Schools
• Sept. 7: Hillsdale Local School District
