All Kids Fair returns to Samanea Mall in Westbury this weekend

More than 90 vendor booths featuring activities for children and families will be at the All Kids Fair on Sunday at Samanea Mall in Westbury. This is the fair’s 12th year, and last year it drew more than 2,200 people, says owner/director Barbara Kaplan.

In addition to the booths featuring birthday party options, afterschool activities, health and wellness services, summer camps and programs for children with special needs, the fair will offer 15 activity areas for children where they can try out programs including dance, soccer, fashion design, chess and Jedi training.

There’ll be three bounce houses, face painting, balloon animals and live characters, Kaplan says. The fair caters to children ages “Mommy and Me to the SAT,” she says, and most of the activities are included in the fair entry fee. There’s also food for sale indoors and in outdoor food trucks.

Here’s a sampling of what’s planned for Sunday:

Hip-hop dance

Jaison Coles, owner of J. Coles Hip Hop Dance Kids, based in Rockville Centre, will offer live class demonstrations throughout the day. He’ll also be leading students from the dance school in performances and break-dance demonstrations, and will promote crowd participation in activities such as TikTok dance challenges, he says.

Petting zoo

“We’ll be bringing a bunch of farm animals,” says Michelle Argyros, co-owner of Hauppauge-based Once Upon A Farm. Children can pet or play with a goat, pig, rabbits, ducks and chickens. The animals will be in pens on a grassy area outside the mall.

One of Argyros’s favorite animals is the silky chicken. “It’s almost like they have fur, not feathers,” Argyros says. Animal food will be available for a small fee, she says. There will also be a photo booth with a backdrop, and for a fee of a few dollars, parents can take their own photos of their children sitting on a bale of hay and holding a basket with a rabbit in it, Argyros says.

Superheros and princesses

Magical Memories Events, based in Patchogue, offers children’s entertainment for birthday parties, communions and other special events across Long Island. The company will be bringing characters to the All Kids Fair to offer Superhero Training with what they refer to as “Stars and Stripes Superheros.” It will also offer Singalong with the Princesses, featuring Encanto sisters and a Snow Queen, says owner Samantha Gates. Kids can also enjoy face painting, get “tattoos” and participate in story time and parachute play, Gates says.

Snapology and XP League

Snapology is bringing its Long-Island based 40-foot custom mobile STEM bus and will be letting children test out Lego bricks, marble wall, robots and virtual reality. Such projects also teach children life lessons such as frustration tolerance, says co-owner Nancy Setzler. Snapology is geared to children ages 2 to 14 and offers library and after-school programs. Setzler and her co-owner husband, Paul Bodycomb, will be introducing their new venture, XP League for esports teams, which will let children compete in video games such as Fortnite against other teams. XP League is set to be based in the Samanea Mall beginning in May. It will teach teamwork and good sportsmanship, Setzler says.

Donations for the community

Fairgoers can donate infant formula, nonperishable food and clothing for Giving is Living, a community nonprofit organization that helps families in the Roslyn Heights area. “This is my first year participating,” says founder and CEO Shamecqua Moore.

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.