A free educational event just for children will be offered later this month.

The annual Children’s Fair at the St. Joseph Civic Arena is organized by the St. Joseph Youth Alliance. The fair offers a wide variety of activities for children from birth to six-years-old.

Linda Midyett is the Educare Director at St. Joseph Youth Alliance. Midyett said they have put on the fair for several years as something for families to do at no cost.

“There’s just not a lot of free things that are educational, so we really want to provide that for our community as well as just modeling ideas about play as a learning opportunity, that’s how that age group learns is through their play,” Midyett said. “(In) each of the activity areas, they provide something that links in to a children’s book that shows how they can expand that book and the children can learn while they’re actively involved in something.”

The theme of this year’s fair is “Mix it Up.”

“We are focusing on all the different arts such as music, art itself, dance, just a variety of areas that fit in with that theme and then each agency picks a book that goes along with that theme and designs their activity around it,” Midyett said. “So it’s another way for parents, or adults, whoever brings the child, they can learn how to expand a book beyond just reading it, to really make an activity around it.”

Midyett said several agencies will be at the fair this year including Parents As Teachers, the St. Joseph Public Library, the Noyes Home and more. The Conservation Department will be bringing a large aquarium with live fish, the University of Missouri Extension will bring live animals and members from the fire department, police department, highway patrol and sheriff’s department will be there with their vehicles.

The Children’s Fair will take place on Tuesday, April 17th, at the Civic Arena.

It will be open from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 5 to 7:30 p.m. that day.

For more information about the event or to volunteer, contact the St. Joseph Youth Alliance at (816) 232-0050.