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For 16 years the Hy-Vee Community Kids Fest has been bringing kids and area communities together at the Crossroads Mall for a night of fun.

This year, the event also reached out to those communities in a time of increased need.

Tables of various games and activities lined the hallways of the Crossroads Mall, which hosts the event, and among those tables were rows of reusable shopping bags for participants to drop nonperishable food items to be donated to local food pantries.

The food drive was a spin-off of Hy-Vee's yearlong campaign to help keep the shelves of local food pantries stocked during a time when there has been more need for assistance than ever, according to Hy-Vee Marketing and Event Coordinator Ann Halbur.

"All year, Hy-Vee has been working to give to the local food banks," Halbur said. "This has been a free event for kids to come have a night fun for 16 years. The food drive is a way for them to learn to give back to those who are less fortunate."

Throughout the evening, kindergarten through fourth-grade students from Fort Dodge Community Schools, St. Edmond Catholic Schools, Community Christian School, St. Paul Lutheran School, Prairie Valley, Southeast Webster-Grand, Manson Northwest Webster and Rockwell City/Lytton had the opportunity to participate in activities such as the limbo, hopscotch, bean bag toss, face painting and coloring at stations run by cheerleaders from Prairie Valley and Southeast Webster-Grand high schools. Upon completing an activity, students received a check mark on their list of activities and turned it in at the end of the evening for their school to receive more participation points. Each school receives $500 for participating, Halbur said, and are divided into categories by student enrollment to earn their additional share of the $10,400 donated by local businesses.

"We started the fundraising with local businesses and vendors in June," said Halbur. "All of it goes back to the schools and to the Fort Dodge Public Library for their children's section."

Taylor Jones, a first-grader at Cooper Elementary School said it was "kinda hard" to keep a ball between her legs as she hopped to the finish line and placed the ball into a bucket. She said her favorite part of Kids Fest was getting her face painted.

Jezika Joyce, a second-grader at Prairie Valley, agreed.

"I liked having my face painted," 7-year-old Joyce said. "I'm a kitty."

Although she was busy as a long line of children waited to have their faces painted, Prairie Valley cheerleader Jessica Kellar said she and other members of the cheer squad were having fun fulfilling the kids' requests for designs on their faces.

"I hope we get to do it again," she said. "It's been a lot of fun."

A new activity this year was fingerprinting identification done by the Fort Dodge Police Department and Webster County Sheriff's Department, sponsored by Hy-Vee Drugstore and Younkers.

Danielle Hansen, product manager at Hy-Vee Drugstore, said Kids Fest was a good opportunity to fingerprint the children because it would reach a lot of families at once.

"It's great for parents to have these," she said. "We hope they never have to use them, but it helps right now with all of the rumors going around about suspicious people and (alleged) abductions near schools."

An estimated 600 to 700 students participated in the event, Halbur said.

"It takes about a week to get the final count," she said. "But we have extra help this year, so we hope we can pay out by Friday."

Contact Emilie Nelson at (515) 573-2141 or enelson@messengernews.net