La Casa de Don Pedro & The City of Newark Hosted the 12th Annual Festival de la Familia in Lower Broadway!

Newark residents gathered together with their families to celebrate the vibrant strength and diversity of the community!

NLa Casa de Don Pedro, one of Newark’s premier community based social service and community development organizations, and The City of Newark hosted the 12^th Annual Festival de la Familia (#FestivaldelaFamilia) on Sunday, August 18^th from 12pm-5pm on Broadway between Bloomfield Place & Broad Street in Newark, NJ.

Held in the Heart of Newark’s Lower Broadway neighborhood, Festival de la Familia celebrated Newark’s vibrant diversity and the strength of community. Due to its enormous success, Project Backpack returned once again! This year, with the help of our outstanding Project Backpack Donors we were able to provide 600+ Newark children with a free backpack filled with school supplies to get them ready for the coming 2019/2020 school year!

The day was filled with games, crafts, street performances and DJ Cisco leading the show. Musicians and artists showcased their music and dances from regions like Puerto Rico, West Africa, and Mexico. These include Sabor Boricua, Kamate Traders African Drummers- Yah’ya Kamate, Crespita Entertainment, Swing Combo and more! Newark’s very own Batman [Retired Detective Ortiz] made a very special appearance as well.

The streets were lined with carnival games, street performers and many other activities for families to enjoy. Community Partner organizations from all over the city joined in on the festivities of the day, including The New Jersey Devils with a Hockey shootout, Barat Foundation with their Pop-up Gallery, The Newark Public Library, Newark Community Solutions/Newark Youth Court and many others.

To view highlights from our 12^th Annual Festival de la Familia please visit our Flickr page, https://www.flickr.com/photos/lacasadedonpedro/albums/72157710443917637.

Festival de la Familia was made possible by the support of sponsors: Prudential Financial, M&T Bank, PSE&G, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Valley Bank, Horizon NJ Health, Lower Broadway Neighborhood Association, RWJ Barnabas Clara Maass Medical Center, RWJ Barnabas Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Capacity Benefits & Financial Solutions, Rutgers University- Newark, Shoprite of Newark, TD Bank, Amerigroup- An Anthem Company, Latin American Motorcycle Association- Newark, Lotus Equity Group, New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark Downtown District, Popular Bank, Bayshore Family of Companies, Hackensack Meridian Health, KIPP NJ, The Prudential Center and NJ Devils, RyArMo Photography Studio, Stobbs Printing, and UnitedHealthcare.

Backpack and school supplies were supplied by La Casa de Don Pedro’s #ProjectBackpack donors: Amerigroup- An Anthem Company, Arcelio Aponte, Bank of America, The Basile Family, Margaret and Richard Cammarieri, Capacity Benefits & Financial Solutions, CKO Kickboxing Newark, Byron Clark, Julio Colon, Rafael Cuello, The Diloné Family, ForRealCeil, LLC, Dawn Gammon, Tony Gibbons, The Gonzalez Family, Gayle Griffin, Harvest Table Newark, Jeremy Johnson, JP Morgan Chase & Co., KIPP NJ, Ollyn Lettman, Evelyn Littles, M&T Bank, Amanda Martinez, Eugene Mazo, The Melendez Family, Ryan Monroe, Eltia Montano-Galarza, North Star Academy, The Ocasio Family, Popular Bank, Maria Puglisi, , Robert Rebimbas, Yesenia Rios, Rita Robles, The Roldán Family, Richard Roper, Ivette Rosario, Rutgers School of Nursing, Santander Bank, Joseph Serzan, Peter Swanson, Grizel Ubarry, Valley Bank, Andrew Villanueva.