Exuberance at the Mesquite Family Night Out

By BOBBIE GREEN

The Progress

The Old Mill Road ballpark was filled with energy on Wednesday evening, May 1 as the annual Mesquite Family Night Out got under way. The purely “Just for fun night” was enjoyed by all ages.
The evening of activities beckoned for families to come and enjoy some time out with their families.

This was the place to see just how many kids do live in Mesquite.
Musical entertainment was provided this year by “Dealt-a-Straight-Band.

Local charity organizations set up vendor booths to offer information about their associations and provide fun games for the kids to play and win prizes.
Weslie Stratton and her two kids Scottie and Quincy were having fun with the hoops at the Kids for Sports booth.
“We enjoy family night every year,” Weslie said. “It is such a nice event to be outside with our kids. We love it.”

There were four very busy bounce houses. Maliasa and Ricardo sat patiently on the ground with their young daughter Ihlario while their other three children were in the bounce houses. “We always come to enjoy the nice outing with our kids,” Ricardo said.

The Mesquite Police Department was there with the very popular race minicarts.
The Mesquite Fire Department was giving tours of the ladder truck letting the kids handle the fire hose toward a target.

A mechanical bull drew a long line of young challengers. One determined young man refused to be thrown off, hanging on to the bull’s neck as he hung alongside the machine. He then ran to the end line time and time again to ride again and again. Maybe Family Night has a budding rodeo champ in the making.

Mesquite Dept. of Athletics and Leisure Services Director Nicholas Montoya was pleased with the success of the event and expressed appreciation to his staff who worked hard to organize the event.
“My staff is amazing with all the work they do to make this event possible,” he said on the morning after the event. “They handed out over 2,200 raffle tickets last night.”
“I also want to thank all our sponsors and prize donors that helped make this event possible and successful,” Montoya added.

Over 40 city organizations volunteered in some way to help put on this event that was free for everything except for the variety of food vendors in attendance.

Montoya said he is appreciative of all the city administration offices, Mayor and council members that came out to support the event.