By CHRIS MENEES
Staff Reporter
The Tennessee Rollerz will be letting the good times roll Saturday at the 7th Annual Summer Fun Fest.
The free youth-focused and family-oriented event will be staged starting at 5 p.m. at Nash Street Park in Union City.
The Tennessee Rollerz Motorcycle Club, established in May 2006, is a community service organization dedicated to the youth of the community.
The club’s mission is to serve as positive role models to them and challenge them to be leaders for their generation, as well as to encourage them to set educational and life-enriching goals for themselves. The club provides a support system to help them meet and exceed those goals.
The Tennessee Rollerz slogan is “Positive Riders Doing Big Things,” a valued statement of what the organization’s principles are founded upon.
Saturday’s block party-type event is open to all residents of the community, with special focus on children ages birth to 18. It will begin with registration at 5 p.m. and the fun will run throughout the evening.
The club will provide free food, popsicles, games, inflatables fun and door prizes for local youth to encourage them to have fun in a positive environment, according to organizers — who urge all youth to attend.
Games for youth will include disk drop, spinner, duck matching, ping pong, bean bag toss, football toss, beach ball toss, milk bottle toss, a rainbow game and a basketball free throw game.
Other activities will include inflatables and a newly-added arts and crafts station with sand art and other supplies to encourage children’s creativity. The inflatables will be available from 5-6 p.m. and again from 7-8 p.m., with an hour’s break in between for games, food and other activities.
Drawings open to children in attendance will include those for six bicycles and four MP3 players.
Older youth ages 11-18 can receive a Teen Activity Tag which they can have stamped for participation in various activities and in order to be eligible for special drawings. Organizers hope it will encourage the older youth to be more involved with the festivities.
There will also be guessing games for teens where they can win prizes by guessing the number of items in jars, a spokesman said.
Motorcycles will be on display and various vendors will be on site Saturday evening.
A similar successful Summer Fun Fest sponsored by the Tennessee Rollerz was held in early June in Dyersburg.
In a continued effort to reach the community’s youth, the club has also established the Tennessee Rollerz SPROCKETS — Student Program to Reach Out and Challenge Kids to Excel Towards Success. It focuses on young people who are committed to being leaders in their community and who are striving for success in life.
Staff Reporter Chris Menees may be contacted by email at cmenees@ucmessenger.com.

Published in The Messenger 8.24.12