The Friends of Central Mississippi Residential Center hosted thousands of area residents and trick-or-treaters during its annual CMRC Fall Festival and Treat Street on the facility’s campus Monday night.
Families began arriving for the festival as early as 4:30 p.m. Monday to get a bag of candy and enjoy all of the carnival games and fun activities. Event organizers estimated a crowd of about 3,000 attended the event.
While the event didn’t feature Midway carnival rides and attractions, the crowd still was able to play games, such as the duck pond, football toss, fishing and games. LA Dance and several other local performers participated in the entertainment segment of the program.
“We’d like to thank everyone who came out and supported us,” said CMRC director Donna Creekmore. “We’d also like to thank the sponsors, the volunteers and the Friends of CMRC board. Without their support, we couldn’t have done this.”
Suzi McDill, one of the event organizers for the Friends of CMRC’s event, said this is the biggest annual fundraisers for the organization.
“This organization helps to care for some of the needs of those who suffer from a mental illness, that the state can’t care for,” McDill said in an email prior to the event. “It assists clients as they are trying to transition back into the community and to have as normal of a life as possible as they cope with their mental health concerns.”
Creekmore said the Friends of CMRC supports the residents throughout the year.
“We will use this to help give gifts to our residents for Christmas, provide meals for special occasions such as Thanksgiving, Fourth of July and other holidays that we kind of take for granted,” Creekmore said. “And it helps cover the costs of outings for our residents who may not monetary support to pay for those trips.”
