'A win-win celebration'

SANDUSKY — Everything Sandusky has to offer came together on one street for the sixth year in a row. On Friday, dozens of Sandusky organizations took over Mills Street to celebrate the sixth-annual Community Collaboration Day. It was a free event tailored to children, but all were invited with free giveaway items, like school supplies, food and more. This year was the biggest yet. According to Tondra Frisby, youth program supervisor at Sandusky Rec at Mills School, 36 community organizations had booths lining the street, each with information on how they support Sanduskians. This is the largest number of organizations to come together. "I'm just a big proponent of getting the community to come all of us as one, no matter what your socioeconomic status is," Frisby said. "If you work or if you don't, this is a community. Sandusky is a great community, and we all need to be celebrated in one place." Not only is Community Collaboration Day about celebrating each other, according to Frisby, it is also about educating families on what resources are available to them. "If we get everybody in one place that has something to offer our residents, and then have the community all in one place, you get a captured audience," Frisby said. "You throw in some fun in there and it's a win-win celebration." Several of the families visiting are familiar with Frisby and her efforts in supporting the community. She helps run a summer camp through Sandusky Rec at Mills School. One of her students, Olivia Kurtz, who is going into third grade, came out to the event with her grandma, Cheryl Kurtz. Cheryl said Olivia has been looking forward to this event after hearing about it at camp. She said Olivia loves Frisby and her favorite part of the day was when Frisby got into the dunk tank. Another one of Frisby's students, upcoming fifth-grade student Kommon Ridgeway, was with his grandma, Joey Gallon. Gallon said she came out to support Mills camp and Frisby and to take advantage of what organizations were offering, like the haircuts and school supplies. Along with the information booths, Community Collaboration Day also had several fun activities like the dunk tank, face-painting and many more. One activity Kailey Wells, an upcoming second-grade student, was excited for was a bounce house. Wells attended the event with Tanechia Turner. She said Wells went to Monroe School last year, so this was their first Sandusky event. Wells said her favorite part of the day was going to the bounce house and getting books to read.