Detroit Metro Youth Day A Great Success

Detroit News, Tony Gonzales

Detroit News, Tony Gonzales,DETROIT -- With stars, basketballs and the Detroit "D" painted on cheeks and arms, the Whitfield family left Belle Isle on Wednesday smiling and snacking on candy.

They had plenty of company. Some 34,000 -- roughly the size of the city of Madison Heights -- flocked to the island for the annual Metro Detroit Youth Day, a summertime tradition of free food, fun and music.

Overwhelmed by Motown performances, boxing demonstrations and horse rides, the Whitfields -- father Shawn, 32, and sons Na'im, 10, and Shawn Jr., 6, of Detroit -- chose lunch, tennis lessons and an insect exhibit.

"It was stickin' in your hands," said Shawn Jr., as he wiggled while remembering a centipede.

"And the cockroach was climbing all up your arms," his father said.

It was the family's first time attending, but festival co-founder and coordinator Ed Deeb, president of the Michigan Food and Beverage Association, marked year 25 for Youth Day.

The group, Wayne County Parks and some 200 sponsors brought the event together, which included a Navy drill team show for the first time.

"Everybody was spellbound; it was really beautiful," Deeb said.

The huge attendance will encourage expanded exhibits, Deeb said. And he hopes sponsors will continue to award more scholarships to high school students. In a morning ceremony, 45 received awards.

Families waited more than two hours beneath pointed white tents and circling seagulls for face painting and ate free hot dogs, gumballs, granola bars and ice cream. The stage included youth performers, professional singers and QTMC, a group that rapped about graduating and taking responsibility.

Hamtramck 10-year-olds Sarida Anderson, Shakia Marshall and Taren Hudson pretended to sail big waves in a Coast Guard boat "docked" on the brown Belle Isle Athletic Field grass.

"We were talking on the mic and turning the switches," Shakia said.

But Sarida's favorite attraction was a fire safety house, where she jumped out a window without getting hurt, she said.

Marines' camouflage caps bobbed through throngs of school groups, "in a show of force," said Brig. Gen. Ronald L. Bailey, visiting from his Pentagon office.

Bailey said the event's encouragement of youths to give back to communities matches Marine philosophy.

"If you invest in youth, you're investing in the future," Bailey said

Copyright Detroit News, Tony Gonzales, 2007