By Aaron Retherford
In early June, the Spring into Summer Festival helped get local residents out to Barre’s recreational facilities.

The Town of Barre Recreation Department has come up with another great idea to get people out to the local playgrounds — ice cream socials!

“This is the next phase to promote the local playgrounds that we oversee,” David Rouleau, Vice Chair of the ice cream socials, said. “We figured an ice cream social will bring folks out, socialize with their neighbors and maybe get a kid or two interested in the playground and drag their parents back to it.”

Rouleau said a lot of work has gone into improving the playgrounds, and it might not occur to residents that these playgrounds and their picnic shelters would be great places to host birthday parties or play dates.

Kicking off the ice cream socials at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12 will be Lower Graniteville Playground, at the corner of Baptist Street and Graniteville Road. Ice cream socials will continue every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. until August 16, where locals get to see the most recently updated playground, Trow Hill, the benefactor of a Community Build back in May.

To see if a playground near you is scheduled for an ice cream social, check out the Calendar section in The WORLD each week.