In the back corner of the seasonally adorned Child Development Center, in the jungle gym, sat an expectant mother looking after her son, Owen.

Whittier resident Christina Phillips expressed, “It’s nice to see […] Owen playing with his classmates, it is priceless, I don’t get to do it all of the time,”

Amidst pumpkins and hay parents and children reveled in the Harvest Festival.

The Harvest Festival took place on Wednesday, Oct. 27 starting as early as 9:00 a.m. and ended at 1 p.m.

The event was put on by Debra A. Gonzalez, atelierista at the Child Development Center in conjunction with Florence Resseguie, and Director Debra Ward.

Gonzalez expressed that this is the fifth harvest festival and it is for “our families and our community coming together and just building relationships.”

The festival counted with ample space and different stations for the children and parents to partake in activities such as face painting and pumpkin carving.

“It’s a bigger space, so it’s wider and we have more activities for the families and children. We have an animated storyteller, straw painting, stained glass pumpkins, a bird feeder, a WIC to provide parents with information on resources,” Gonzalez said of the new space

“We also have a book fair for parents to incorporate language and books in the home for literacy. Just coming and breaking bread and just enjoying this day with everybody,” she concluded.

Gonzalez stated that although most food was provided by the Child Development Center, parents donated desserts.

Nutrition Assistant for WIC Martha Reyes had an information booth for parents with children under five.

“I’m here offering our service and reaching out to parents […] letting them know about the WIC Program and we have education on nutrition and counseling on nutrition as well, one on one. We try to help them out.”

As the children played in the slides and danced in the hoedown area, parents formed a long line to get their mid-day lunch, which ended in a table full of seasonal cookies and candies.

Long Beach resident and parent Sandra Pak said, “This is a wonderful school, my kids learn a lot while they’re here and it’s just full of fun activities and celebrating good times […]

“This is the second year we’ve been at the Cerritos Child Development Center and it’s just a fun and fun day, face painting and fun activities for the kids, she concluded.”

“I’m here to support Owen,” Phillips said.

She continued, “I feel that it is very important to come to a school event for my son, I feel like it is more important that anything to be a part of it, involved as a little community.”