Team effort results in Saturday street festival

TROY, N.Y. >> River Street in downtown Troy is expected to be packed Saturday with people coming out for the last outdoor edition of the Troy Waterfront Farmers’ Market for the season, but it will also welcome children and families for a Halloween event co-hosted by one downtown business owner and City Council candidate.

Jamie Magur, a Republican running for the District 3 council seat and owner of Troy Grooming Co. at 205 River St. decided he wanted to provide kids with a Halloween event, so he joined forces with Engelke Farm and members from Team H.E.R.O. (Helping Everyone Recognize Opportunity) to host a family fall festival 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday along River Street. Planned activities include pumpkin painting, cider donuts, balloons, a clown, face painting, a bounce house and a petting zoo.

Magur said more than a halfdozen downtown businesses will also be participating in the event by giving out candy to kids who stop by.

“The event is going to pick up where the farmers market leaves off and stop at the corner of State and River streets,” said Magur. “We’re going to decorate the street as a fallscope, and we plan on leaving it up until at least Thanksgiving.”

Engelke Farm was more than happy to join Magur’s effort.

“We all grew up in Troy, and now we all have kids growing up in Troy,” said Caitlin Engelke, “so we kind of just wanted to give back to the community. We thought this kind of event would be fun.”

Magur said the event grew out of his desire to support city youth, a main plank in his council campaign. He also hosted an event over the summer in which he treated a large group of children to a Tri-City Valleycats game.

“Part of my platform is that we need to partner with the youth organizations and invest in our kids,” said Magur. “They are 100 percent our most valuable resource, and this is just a way of us practicing what we preach.”

When Magur reached out to Team H.E.R.O., Jerry Ford, leader of that program, which is based at the Troy Boys and Girls Club, said they knew they wanted to jump on board.

“Stuff like this adds to our greater mission,” said Ford, “Our greater mission is community engagement, getting businesses and people more involved with what’s going on in the community.”

Magur said he also reached out to other youth organization so they could get the word out about the festival.

“I’ve reached out to both Boys and Girls Clubs, CYO, the YMCA and Troy and Lansingburgh schools,” said Magur. “We would like to see as many people as possible at this event.”