BELLE FOURCHE—The second annual Chalk It Up to Kindness event brought families and friends together at Herrmann Park on Saturday, May 9, highlighting mental health while enjoying outdoor activities.
The event was designed for both adults and kids, with many offerings geared specifically toward the younger crowd. “It is a family-friendly event—that’s what we’re trying to do, bring in a lot of kids,” explained Sonia Ribordy, chair of the Belle Fourche Out of the Darkness Walk. “We’ve got our resource table and all the chalking supplies. There’s a Caterpillar Station, they can make caterpillars or bracelets, and we are encouraging them to put one green bead on each of their bracelets, for mental health awareness—to promote that part. We’ve got the face-painting area, a temporary tattoo table—they’re mental health tattoos, and then there are journals with stickers. Journaling just really helps process stuff, so they can just decorate their own journal. Artemis has joined us and Second Chance Movement joined us too.”
There was also a station where Howard Ugland created balloon animals for the kids, and a bubble-blowing area.
The sidewalks all around the park had chalk art with inspirational and encouraging words and drawings created by event attendees. Chalk It Up to Kindness event was hosted by the Out of the Darkness Walk and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) to raise money for the walk and raise awareness about mental health and encourage everyone to check on each other.
The highlight of the day was the Pie in the Face fundraiser that pitted police officers against firefighters with whoever got pied the most winning the competition. They collected the plates as they were pied in the face. Detective Jason Huber represented the Belle Fourche Police Department while Don Ward and Zech Kari represented Belle Fourche Volunteer Fire Department.
For a donation one could get their hands on a pie, which was a plate full of whipped cream with sprinkles on top, and place it in the face of one of the volunteers. Some placed the pie with full force, while others barely touched the pie to the face of the victim they chose and ran away fast!
The whipped cream was flying! The event brought a lot of cheers and laughter. “That’s what we are doing, just trying to bring some awareness of mental health and having fun, it’s a great day,” shared Ribordy. “Taking care of your mental health and keeping people in a good place—we just want to encourage people to start conversations. Check on your family, check on your friends and get outdoors, get that fresh air and just have a fun day!”
After the plates were counted, the firefighters came out on top earning 29 pies to the face while the police officer earned 22. The event raised $196, that will be used for the Belle Fourche Out of the Darkness Walk scheduled for September 19.
PooterQ BBQ and Rollin in the Hills food trucks were onsite to keep everyone fed.
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