HOLIDAY CHEER COMING TO HILTON
The village of Hilton will celebrate its third annual Hilton Holiday Celebration on Main Street on December 7. All Main Street businesses will participate in the event—which has nearly tripled in size in only a couple of years—offering specials, deals, and giveaways.
The streets will be lined with fifteen to twenty local vendors, offering food and arts and crafts. There will be free popcorn and hot cocoa, as well as holiday activities like visits with Santa, caroling, wagon rides, and the Scavenger Hunt of Christmas Past, hosted by the Parma Hilton Historical Society.
“There is just something magical about the holiday season and bringing a community together for one single reason,” says Ryan Rockefeller, assistant recreation director for Hilton-Parma Recreation. “This is also a free event to attend, and we want everyone to feel welcome and included—no matter where you’re from, who you are, or what your socio-economical background is.”
A DJ and a live band will provide the festive tunes to keep visitors entertained, and there will be stations for holiday craft making and a kids’ zone with games for the little ones. La Danse will perform a recital during the event as well. The festivities will conclude with the community tree lighting at the Community Center gazebo.
Organizers are expecting about 3,000 visitors to the event, says Rockefeller, adding, “It’s just an awesome event for a small town with a big heart!”
PITTSFORD’S NEW INDOOR PLAYGROUND
Jess Swinford was a stay-at-home mom when she moved to Rochester one year ago from Hawaii. As she tried to fill her days with her toddler son, she realized he wasn’t a fan of any of the area’s indoor playgrounds. That’s when she had the idea for ROC Kid City, an indoor playground she opened in Pittsford, across from the Pittsford Plaza.
Even though she had never opened a business before, Swinford found herself calm and focused during the process. Her biggest challenge was finding a space, and once that happened, she says things quickly fell into place.
Swinford’s vision for ROC Kid City, which opened in June, was simple. “I wanted to create a fun, safe, clean space for children to explore, imagine, and play. And at the same time, (for) the adults to be able to sit and relax a little, while being able to easily view their children,” she says.
The indoor playground is recommended for children ages ten years and younger, and features a soft play area for babies and toddlers, a multi-level play structure, a train table area, slides, a ball pit, interactive wall games (via a projector), a climbing wall, a role play area featuring an ice cream truck, an Augmented Reality Sandtable, and much more.
Parents can reserve a party room for groups of up to fifteen adults and fifteen children, or they can rent out the entire 7,500 square feet for a special event.
Swinford has been happy to see the flow of guests in her door, and excited to hear their positive feedback. While she’s focusing on her current location and ensuring its continued success, she hopes to open a second location in the next five years.
BRIGHTER DAYS: A SAFE HAVEN FOR KIDS’ MENTAL HEALTH
Prior to the opening of Brighter Days Pediatric Mental Health Care Center on the URMC campus in July, if a child was facing a mental health crisis, they would visit their local emergency room or Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP). The child and family would get the care they need, but wait times were long and the system lacked an individualized approach.
Today, Brighter Days offers families an option for immediate and safe mental health care, with fifteen patient rooms staffed by thirty caregivers, open 12 p.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. The walk-in facility was opened with the support of the Brighter Days Foundation, which helped fund the center with a $1 million gift, as well as the efforts of other donors to Golisano Children’s Hospital. It took ten months to build and open the facility.
Mike Scharf, chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, estimates the center will see about 3,000 patients in its first year. And for any of those children who may not have access to transportation, West Herr Auto Group has donated a vehicle to get them to Brighter Days.
The mission was to open a child- and family-centered service to evaluate and intervene for youth in crisis, says Scharf, and to do so in a calming, individualized manner. So far, he’s been satisfied with the outcomes of the program.
“We have been pleased to see all of the processes we planned come to fruition,” says Scharf, “including a much more family-centered and quicker process— compared to CPEP and the ER—to help youth de-escalate when in distress and connect them with appropriate services and return home.”
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