Aging Program Holding its Annual Ice-Cream Social
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 3:30 PM
Lauren Bindley
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The Licking County Aging Program's annual ice-cream social will be held on Thursday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the lawn in front of the Zerger Hall Senior Center.
Public Relations Director Larry Fugate talks about the event.
"This is always a tradition for the east end of Newark. It dates back to when the Children's Home was in operation sometime 40 or 50 years ago. Then, when the Licking County Aging Program moved into that area of Newark to serve the county, we took over the operation of the ice-cream social. It is more or less a community thank you. It is not a fundraising event for us."
Fugate says there will be plenty of entertainment for everyone to enjoy.
"It will feature quite a bit of entertainment, and it is all free. The entertainment on the stage will include the Country Music Fellowship Organization; comedian Don Basham, who is from Pataskala and had a TV show on channel 10 back in the 1950s and we will also have the Heartland Express, which is a popular country western gospel band."
Fugate says there will be a lot of great food at the event as well.
"For people's tummy enjoyment, we will have the pork tenderloin sandwiches, which people always seem to look forward to. We will also have homemade chicken and noodles, grilled brats, plenty of ice-cream and several senior organizations will have bake sales as well."
Fugate says the event typically attracts a lot of people.
"We have had as many as 600 people come to this. Parking is not a problem. We will be using a variety of parking lots that are to the east of Zerger Hall, but we will have a shuttle service. It will be a continuing shuttle service so people can park safely in well lit parking lots, and then we will just bring them up to the grounds."
Fugate explains the history behind the ice-cream social.
"When the Licking County Children's Home was in operation, the Zergers and the other people who ran the Children's Home had a neighborhood ice-cream social to basically thank the people who would bring Christmas gifts and other kinds of gifts to the kids during the year. So, they had this ice-cream social to thank the neighborhood."
Fugate says after the Children's Home closed in the 1970s and the Aging Program moved to the property in the early 1980s, they continued the tradition.
"It has continued to be a sort of thank you to the neighborhood and to all of Licking County for the people who volunteer at the agency and who donate things to the agency. It's a free night of fun and frolic for a lot of folks."
For more information about the Licking County Aging Program, call 345-0821 or 1-800-452-0097.
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