Family Fest, a fall celebration connecting the downtown campus with a family-friendly educational and interactive program was sponsored by Campus Activities Board (CAB) and the UTSA Office of Student Activities on Saturday, Oct. 11.
In the Bill Miller Plaza the UTSA community was offered free hot dogs, face painting, ring tosses, moon bounces and custom street signs.
“Family Fest began four years ago to provide an involvement opportunity for evening and graduate students who typically
Robert and Jennie Trejo from ZooMagination educated children about exotic animals’ lifestyles and shared the importance to protect our natural environment with animals. Prickles the African hedgehog; Sienna, the two – toed sloth; Legend, the blue and gold macaw native to Central and South America and the most eye-opening was Salazar, the Hog Island Boa from Nicaragua.
Four children held a live Boa constrictor.
“It has been incredible with so many kids and their parents; we’ve had a good time,” said Eric Arellano, coed career counselor, said, “We had a spider ring toss and it was a lot of fun to see the children excited about the animals.”
The family fest would not be complete without handmade balloons. Children of all ages, even adults waited in line for their personal crafted concoctions. The inner childhood had adults wearing blue and orange inflated football hats, princess pink head toppers and monkey hugging hats.
“My favorite part is the balloons,” said Zachary Bravo, 4, as he was wearing a balloon hat with eye balls bulging from all sides.
“I thought it was a lot of fun, it was a very good way to bring the whole community together,” Kristina Silveira, senior education major, said. “I liked the animals from ZooMagination, the magic show and the balloons.”
The Family Fest also had a family magic show featuring Mike Bliss and his sons, The Incredible Bliss Brothers, Steven, 8 and Zachary, 9. They appeared on FOX’s 30 Seconds to Fame and ranked top 35 of 100,000 acts from NBC’s America’s Got Talent. Mike Bliss had a variety tricks at his fingertips from a disappearing-reappearing act to card tricks and unicycling. His sons’ the incredible duo astounded the audience with their nationally known mind reading act.
The boys were blind-folded with their backs facing the audience as their father Bliss asked for random personal articles from the audience’s purses and wallets. The Bliss brothers named off a variety of items such as, currency denomination, height, date of birth, eye color and the last four digits of credit cards. This act left the crowd speechless and pondering in amazement.
“It was a lot of fun,” Michael Date, library assistant said, “The magic show was excellent and I’ll have to plan on coming next year with my girlfriend and her children-the kids really enjoyed it.”
