This Saturday, April 26, princesses will return to RBHS for the Family Fun Fest, a spring festival event by ParentLink. The event will take place not directly in RBHS but across the street in a field by sophomore alley.
The event, led by Carol Mertensmeyer and a group of college students working with ParentLink, will feature RBHS students as princes and princesses, fully rounding out a highly collaborative process.
“The purpose of the event is to immerse families in a fun, social environment, rich with learning opportunities,” Mertensmeyer said. “It’s also for the purpose of teaching college students how to successfully engage families and community to promote health and well-being.”
ParentLink’s Festival has a variety of activities geared to families, from a visiting firetruck to crafts to a castle-themed bounce house, which, Metensmeyer said, influenced their decision to add princesses last fall.
The princesses appear as a collaboration between TRYPS Children’s Theatre, RBHS and ParentLink. This weekend, 18 princes, princesses and other characters will appear throughout the day to spend time with patrons of the free event. Students like junior Emily Mertens, who portrayed Snow White last fall, will participate again tomorrow portray the ever-popular Rapunzel.
“Snow White is really like, prim and proper and just, you know, she just kind of like floats around,” Mertens said of her characters, “but Rapunzel just like, goes out and conquers. It’s awesome, she’s just like, running around being crazy.”
Mertens has some experience as acting the part of a princess, while other newcomers are getting themselves prepared for their first character event. Newcoming junior Sean Doherty is thinking of ideas of how to portray his character Prince Eric.
“He doesn’t do much in the movie, he just looks pretty,” Doherty said, “so I think I’m just gonna sit there and look pretty.”
So in the morning, characters will make the journey across the street for the family fun fest, which is running between 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., free to the public.
By Madi Mertz
What character are you excited to see at the Family Fun Fest?
