Nothing beats the hype of an arcade. The lights, the noise, the crowd; it’s not just that games like pinball and Pac-Man are classics, it’s that having fun around other people is essential to us as humans. To some people, a free arcade is enough to bring people together, but to the countless Isaacs staff and Morgan Stanley volunteers, this was just part of the yearly tradition known as Isaacs Community Day.
The Isaacs Neighborhood Center holds a yearly festival for the community every summer. It doesn’t matter if you’re a member of the older adults center or the after school program, it doesn’t even matter if you’re not from the area, Community Day is for everyone. It is a day of gathering dedicated to communion and fun. Along with the arcade, there was an art station, music, bingo, and free food. “I come here every year, usually twice on the same day,” said one of the residents of the Isaacs towers in Spanish as he was leaving with a burger. “I’m here in the beginning for the food and then I come back with my grandchildren when they’re out of school.” A few hours later, he was lined up at a festival booth with his granddaughter to receive one of the many prizes handed by Morgan Stanley volunteers.
Many elected officials and organizations used the foot traffic as a chance to table and provide resources, but they could not stay away from the fun either. Even they couldn’t hide their child-like excitement as they competed on the hoops machine.
There was one thing missing though, something that is always missing at Isaacs Community Day: phone scrolling. The biggest rival to the small screen is something wonderful happening right in front of you. Food, art, games, joy, these are the catalysts of community, and it doesn’t take a festival to make it happen, it takes a community center.
Isaacs Community Day happens one day out of the year, but the Isaacs Center and Goddard Riverside have programs that operate daily with the same mission of building and strengthening community. From old to young, there is a program for everyone, and a chance to meet someone and tell them, “see you at Community Day.”