The Guardian ad Litem hosts the Community Awareness Fair to try and inform residents of what the program does as well as try to find more volunteers.

LIVE OAK — The name of the event was pretty straight forward: Community Awareness Fair.

The Feb. 22 event at the Suwannee County Coliseum benefiting the Guardian ad Litem program was designed to do just that: raise the community’s awareness.

“The Guardian ad Litem itself is what we’re really trying to get the word out about because we need volunteers,” said Leslie Nestic with the Guardian ad Litem for the Third Judicial Circuit. “That’s why we started having events like this. Just try and get our name out there and have people recognize the Guardian ad Litem for what the program is.”

The Guardian ad Litem program advocates for abused, abandoned and neglected children that have been removed from their parents. The children may live with a relative or in foster care. They may need a counselor or a therapist or a tutor. Those are all services that the Guardians ad Litem advocate for, while also providing a constant figure in their lives.

But in addition to the Guardian ad Litem, the fair also allowed other groups in Suwannee County to share their message as well.

And they did. Nearly 25 groups had booths at the coliseum for the event, which also featured a car show out front in addition to a “plane” ride for small children.

“Recognizing that we’re not well known, we also realized there are other organizations in the community that a lot of people didn’t know about,” said Charlen Bowdry, also with the program. “More people are aware of what’s available to them.”

The Live Oak Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association had a rocket that children could help launch inside the coliseum that was a big attraction as well.

“A lot of community support from our businesses and that was very appreciative,” Bowdry said. “Most of the feedback was they enjoyed the event and they are looking forward to next year.”

Overall, it was a good day with more vendors and more people in attendance than at last year’s first event.

“It went really well,” Nestic said. “Overall, we’re really happy.

“We’re just trying to make it bigger and trying to figure out a way to get more people involved.”