 WMPG Community Radio from USM is hosting four neighborhood block parties for Portland youth and their families this July. In an effort to help Portland youth connect with summer and school year programs, these one to three p.m. block parties will have music, hands-on activities, pick up basketball or soccer games, free food and ice cream, and a raffle. So Anela, tell me what's going on down here. So we're running this series of block parties just to get back to the community, to reach out and basically just to have fun. That is fantastic and you know I know for me really enjoy working with kids and to see the stories that they come up with, the worlds they can create, it's got to be incredibly inspirational. Yeah, we've got like different cultures here so it's kind of nice just to kind of all get together and you know we've got some food from Soul Paradise, they're out at the main halls. Which smells delicious. Fried chicken and mac and cheese from Soul Paradise food. That is wonderful and so from what I've read you've got four of these block parties this summer. Yeah. This is the second and there are two more coming up, what are they? So we had one in Riverton Park last week and then we have at the end of the month the 20th and 29th at Eben Hill and at Monjoy South. Well it looks like the kids and the families are all having an absolutely wonderful time and that's really what it's all about. It is. The community and bringing the community together. Yes indeed. Fantastic. Well thanks for taking a minute out of your day to chat with us. Thank you and thanks for coming. Hello ladies. Hi. Hi. Would you like to be on TV? Sure. What we're doing here is we're telling a story. We're rolling the ice and basically whatever it lands on you've got to make up a story about it. My mom's an apple and a light. I basically made up a story like this very town and the sun was too bright for them to fly so what they needed was an apple that they could like plant and like a tree would grow and then like they could they would be able to fly. That's I love that. My was basically about like a smiley face and a house so my story was about like this person he was so happy that everything anything that he wished for would come true so then he wished for a house and then a house popped up. I love it. We're the telling room. This is Sonia. Hi Sonia. Sonia's one of our lead teachers. I'm Christina. I'm the executive director. We are a literary arts nonprofit. We run free writing programs down in our studio on commercial streets. That is fantastic and are the kids excited that you're here? I think so. You've had a big crowd at this table for ever since we arrived. Storytelling's exciting. Everyone has a story inside of them. We're just here to encourage that storytelling in all young people and all of our books here are published by student authors that have come through our center and we're just grateful to be here. Fantastic. Well thank you ladies. Thank you. Thanks. Hey. How are you? Yeah. You want to say something? Fried chicken. Ha ha. I'm Michelle. This is Rebecca. We work for Goodwill Workforce Solutions. We help kids 16 to 24 find jobs and training and help them get into schools just helping find stability. Fantastic. That's such a wonderful thing to be doing. It is. It's wonderful. In your opinion do you think the kids are having a good time? It sure looks like it. It does to me. That's fantastic. Yeah. And anything you'd like to add while we're here? I don't think so. I mean if you're looking for a job and you're between the ages of 16 and 24 come on and visit us and we might be able to help you out. Fantastic. Thanks. Thanks so much for chatting with us. Do you have anything you'd like to share with us? I just want to like about a game like over there. Yeah. If you throw a ball in a cup and you have to answer the question correctly and then if you get it correct then you like get a prize which is like an orange and like a sticker. But yeah it's right over there and it's like really fun. So we should try that. You should. You should. I love it. My name is Sean Martel and I'm here with the Ocean Map Library. Here we have a bunch of like little activities for kids of all ages. We have some kind of stuff for some of the younger kids. Little activities like coloring and some crosswords and stuff like that. Most of us try to have some more unique stuff like some bags that kids can carry around. Some postcards and just try to kind of promote the idea of education and kind of the importance of maps. A lot of the maps that we also include here kind of are a little bit out of date. So for example this is North America which as you can see is not actually accurate at all but it's a way to kind of show kids how like things have changed over history, how perspectives have changed and especially with like depending on like who's making the map whether they be like Japanese, European or North American. Right. That influences change, perspective change. That sounds fantastic and do you folks enjoy supporting WMPG? Oh yes of course. Actually we just recently had them over. Oh great. Yeah we had them over and looking at a bunch of maps from our collection. Primarily maps to Portland and just how like things have changed. That is fantastic. Well thanks for talking to us today and thanks for being down here. Of course. Thank you. We love these block parties. We're here for the kids. We're here for the families. We're here for the neighborhood. Portland Public Library loves everybody here. That is fantastic and your name is Steve. I'm Steve. Fantastic and what do you think? What's your opinion? It looks like the kids are having a fantastic time. They're having a great time. I mean I had to go through and let them know that we were here giving away free books to every kid that comes over here. Oh that is wonderful. Oh absolutely. Every stop we do this summer kids get a free book. That is fantastic. A great thing to know. Oh yes so we're pretty happy to be here. This is wonderful. Kids are having fun. We're having fun and that's what it's all about. It really is what it's all about and bringing the community together. That's right. Absolutely. Fantastic. Well Steve, very nice to chat with you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for stopping by. We are an organization called VOLLO and we work primarily with high schoolers, sophomores, juniors and seniors and we take them on weekend retreats giving them a chance to kind of step outside of their own communities and friend groups, connect with other teens across experiences and learn about themselves and others. I have to say it looks like the kids are having a wonderful time. They really are. We're so grateful to be out here today with other youth service providers and in this community just having a chance to talk to the teens and the kids. That is fantastic. And what's your name? My name is Megan. Megan, very nice to meet you. And I'm Dana. Hi Dana. Hi. Wonderful to meet you and what a great day. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you. Enjoy the day. That's the first two WMPG block parties. Don't worry. There are two more coming up this July. On Thursday, July 28th, Munjoy South, 96 Adams Street and on Friday, July 29th, Ebon Hill Drive.