While children played with balloons, got their faces painted and everyone clapped to the music at Fountain of Life church Monday night, free school supplies were handed out to those in need.

Jason Easter, volunteer with Fountain of Life church, organized the Reach the City event. He said he had a vision to do something for the city to reach people.

“There’s a big need in the city, even though it’s Mayberry, we still have addictions and families falling apart. What we wanted to do was something where all denominations could come together to do something to reach these people. We will give them a message of hope. We wanted also to bless them, so we wanted to feed everybody, with no strings attached,” Easter said.

He said school supplies are something a lot of families cannot get help with, so he wanted the church community to come together to supply those needs.

“We just wanted to show the community that somebody cares, without forcing religion down their throat, because that’s not what church is about,” said Easter.

Mary Williams, the pastor’s wife and a volunteer for the event, said the church does quarterly events for the community and each year they do one with a back-to-school focus.

The first 150 children received free school supplies and free meals, and door prizes were given out.

The event will continue today, starting at 7 p.m. The first 150 kids will receive free school supplies. The House of Praise provided the entertainment at last night’s event and will perform again tonight.

“We just wanted to get churches to work together to reach the city and get different businesses involved. Eleven different churches are participating of all denominations,” said Williams.

For more information about the ministry, go to www.fountainoflifefwc.org. Fountain of Life is on U.S. 52 between Skyline Memory Gardens and Neighbors.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.