Troy community starts a new "Summer Fun Day" tradition

Sara Rooney, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo.
·2 min read

Aug. 23—Residents of Troy, Kansas, filled Main Street Tuesday to celebrate "Summer Fun Day" as students in that community prepare to return to school.

The event, which was sponsored by Library District #1, the city of Troy and the parent-teacher organization, was held outside the library. It offered a school supply giveaway, food from the Burger Bus, a scavenger hunt, a book sale, a dunk tank, games and more snacks. Trojan cheerleaders and the football team also came to interact with kids from the community.

Sarah Boeh-Cerra, the mayor of Troy, said the city hopes the event unites the community.

"This is the first year that we're doing it and I hope that we can start doing this annually," Boeh-Cerra said. "The churches were doing the back-to-school supply giveaway, and we kind of incorporated everything together and we wanted to give back to the community and this was kind of the start of it."

Holly Uplinger of youth services with the Doniphan County Library said they have been collecting donated school supplies from the community all summer.

"School supplies are for anybody that is in school with no income guidelines or anything, so anybody can have school supplies" Uplinger said. "If we have leftover school supplies, they'll be available throughout the school year."

Allisha Engemann, principal of Troy Elementary School, said the event is a great way to bring the community together ahead of the school year.

"We're such a small community anyway and everybody knows everybody, so I think it's just a good opportunity to have a reason to get everybody together," Engemann said. "A lot of times it's the Friday night lights that kind of bring people together, so, it's just a different reason to get people together and not just for sports and just to bring people together and have some good conversation and lighthearted fun."

Engemann said with school starting on Wednesday, Aug. 31, there's a lot of excitement from students and staff.

"School starts next Wednesday, and the kids are all excited," Engemann said. "I know having the teachers start twinkling back into the school that the excitement is definitely there on the teachers' side as well."

On Monday, Aug. 29, The Troy Public School District will host a back-to-school block party from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. It will include an open house, ice cream social, the Burger Bus, inflatables and games.