Love Fontana Festival provides food and fun | News

The Love Fontana Festival was recently held at Veterans Park, providing those in attendance with food, favors, fun, and faith.

The event is organized annually by the Calvary Chapel Summit Church in partnership with local faith-based, civic, and business organizations, including the City of Fontana and the Fontana Police Officers Association.

“The intent is to inspire people to come together to bring beauty, hope, and transformation to some of Fontana’s more challenged areas,” Pastor Danny Vazquez told attendees.

This year’s event was the first one after the COVID-19 lockdowns of the past two years. The event is typically a daylong celebration, but this year was limited to the evening.

In the past, the Love Fontana event was divided into two parts, a morning beautification project and an evening festival.

For example, in 2019 at the last Love Fontana, the morning saw volunteers clean the historic Pacific Electric Walking Trail. The volunteers added more plants and flowers for walkers to enjoy.

Fontana POA president Jason Delair said: “We like to participate in Love Fontana because it is simply about working together to make things better. It inspires an appreciation and respect for our town. It is about loving Fontana because this is a great place to live.”

Music was provided by Calvary Chapel’s musicians. Hot dogs and hamburgers were cooked by Fontana POA’s Steve Reed, Carolyn Chapman, and Jackie Ayala. The picnic style meal was provided without charge to anyone who attended.

There was a bounce house, games, and information booths. A generous donor contributed a 40-foot trailer filled with items which were distributed to attendees without charge.

Fontana Police Officer Mark Wyrick was there with K-9 Goose, a black labrador, and kids of all ages enjoyed petting Goose.

There was another K-9 there from the Paws 4 Success Foundation, which provides therapy dogs for soldiers, police officers and others who experience PTSD.

The Fontana Fire Department provided a demonstration of its ladder truck capabilities. City Council Member John Roberts, who is also the former fire chief, explained that “the ladder trucks are invaluable for rescues, for elevated water streams on high-rise buildings and stubborn fires like pallet yards and recycling facilities in Fontana.”

One man said he just happened to be in Veterans Park that day to spend time with his son and then came to the event. “This is great. We did not expect it, but we have greatly enjoyed the music and festive atmosphere. It made for a perfect day,” he said.