The Salisbury community could not have asked for better weather June 1 when the Salisbury Elementary School PTO hosted its annual Ice Cream Festival.

But, the weather was only part of the reason why people turned out for the event in droves this year, taking time to enjoy some of the free activities that included a face painter, bounce house and a pair of adorable alpacas available for both pets and pictures.

In an attempt to make the festival more inclusive, the PTO opened up the event for select families a bit ahead of the scheduled start time.

“My co-chair Jen Freas and myself were looking at ways to best serve and meet the needs of the Salisbury Elementary School community for this event,” PTO Vice President Tammy Christ told The Press.

“So, we extended invitations to our learning support classes and staff who would be able to identify any students who may find ICF to be too loud, overstimulating, or anxiety producing, so that we could invite them out before everything kicked off.”

This involved dedicating an hour of the day to a slower, quieter pace focused on what a small group of children wanted to do without the crowds or lines. And while a few families did come out to take advantage of the offer, Christ believes the PTO will get a chance to welcome a greater number of students during that quiet hour in the coming years.

But, that new idea isn’t the only thing that made this year’s Ice Cream Festival feel like a major success. All you had to do was look around at all of the smiling faces to know folks were having a lot of fun as they spent the day at the elementary school.

“We thought this year was fantastic! Each year we think it can’t get better and it does,” Christ continued, adding part of what made this year feel different included some of the other changes the PTO tried out this year.

“We tried some new things like the adorable and sweet alpacas while still keeping a lot of the crowd favorites like the cake walk, raffle baskets and the amazing caricature and face painter.”

And favorites they were! The line for the face painter extended halfway through the cafeteria and she kept going an hour after the festival officially closed to make sure every child waiting in line got a chance to have their face done.

“We also had Mr. Lapp as our awesome clown and our dunk tank volunteers who really take volunteering to the next level,” Christ said of some of the other popular attractions from this year’s event.

Now that it’s over, Christ says she hopes people will start thinking about next year’s event, which is already penciled in for the first Saturday in June.

Mark your calendars, Salisbury! It should be another one to remember.