The community got active this Saturday at the Santa Clarita Sports Complex’s Seventh Annual Youth Sports and Healthy Families Festival.

The festival is a chance to bring families out to the Sports Complex and Aquatic Centers to get kids and parents active in a variety of games and activities, according to event officials.

“The goal is to put on something nice for the public to encourage going out, being healthy and being active,” said Justin Santos, a recreation leader at the event.

More activities were offered this year than the year before with a host of new lawn games like croquet, the use of the entire Aquatics Center for kayaking and inner tube water polo and field games like football, soccer and snag golf, which is a program that Youth Sports offers for kids.

In addition to the fun and games, the festival also featured a healthy living center, where families could learn ways to stay healthy and fit.

The healthy living center taught parents how to prepare healthy snacks kids want to eat, how to keep them playing and ways to get their younger kids active.

Local Santa Clarita businesses also joined the event as a way to reach out to the community, such as TK Taekwondo Martial Arts School and a Hawaiian dance group.

The businesses also donated to the festival’s raffle where all the proceeds go to the city’s SCORE program.

SCORE provides scholarships to the youth of Santa Clarita and give them the opportunity to learn and discover, according to the city’s website.

Originally, the festival was the youth football league opening ceremony where the teams would be introduced, but over the years, the event has come into its own as a community gathering.

“The best benefit (to my family is getting out) and seeing other kids, other people and what’s out there,” said Keith Ciccone, Cub Scout pack 2 leader said. “We had no idea there was fencing, rock climbing or diving (at the event).”

Ciccone’s children were enjoying the Aquatics Center’s diving pool, “they just loving getting out.”

– Skylar Barti