Expand<\/a><\/p>\nThe family, which also includes 3-year-old Valerie, woke up, dressed up and headed out for the day.<\/p>\n
It was a perfect event, Marin said, complete with crafts, free ice cream, face painting and even a bookmobile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish it hadn\u2019t rained,\u201d she said. \u201cBut, it\u2019s still been a nice day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Director of Community Relations Erin Zablocki said the free event is a great opportunity for children to spend time with their families and get to know their neighbors.<\/p>\n
In addition, two bicycles were raffled off at the festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s both fun and educational, absolutely,\u201d Zablocki said.<\/p>\n
University students assist<\/p>\n
University of Scranton sophomore Kristen Fitzsimmons gets her love of working with children from her mother, a kindergarten teacher. Volunteering for the event was an easy decision for her.<\/p>\n
Fitzsimmons, an occupational therapy major, enjoyed seeing children\u2019s eyes light up when they saw the colorful art supplies, including pipe cleaners, beads and construction paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s heartwarming to be able to make a difference in a child\u2019s life,\u201d she said. \u201cIt gives me a sense of purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
University of Scranton students participated in the event as part of the university\u2019s Office of Community-Based Learning program.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Gabriela Londono said she enjoyed helping the kids create art and seeing families come together for a community event.<\/p>\n
It was her first time participating, but Londono said she hoped to do it again next year.<\/p>\n
The festival also featured the Albright Memorial Library Bookmobile, offering books and other literacy resources.<\/p>\n
Library clerk Brittany Bedford said the bookmobile will return to John Adams Elementary School this fall on a regular basis for the first time.<\/p>\n
The bookmobile is filled with interesting reads for both children and adults, which include mysteries, biographies and nature books, she said.<\/p>\n
Participation in Saturday\u2019s event and others like it provides a chance to encourage area residents to get library cards and fully enjoy what the library has to offer.<\/p>\n
The event is part of UNC\u2019s Pine Brook Revitalization Plan and is made possible through funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development\u2019s Neighborhood Partnership Program, with multi-year support from Coterra Energy and Peoples Security Bank & Trust, and additional support from the city of Scranton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When 5-year-old Julian Marin opened his eyes Saturday morning, he had one thing on his mind \u2014 doing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-188213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n![\"Shown](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-PINEBROOK-0510-04.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Families](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-PINEBROOK-0510-01.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Josiah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-PINEBROOK-0510-02.jpg?w=620\")
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