Fish fry, festival to aid special-needs services

An advocacy group that helps children with developmental disabilities and their families is putting on an all-day fish fry and music festival Sunday to raise money to pay for its services.

“Typically, we use the fund for things like transportation to summer camps,” said Kalli Sanders, service coordinator at ARC of Douglas County. “But we’ve also used it for things like therapeutic horseback riding and a reading program for children with Down syndrome. We just paid for some orthopedic inserts that weren’t covered by Medicaid.”

The fund-raiser begins at 2 p.m. at Stu’s Midtown Tavern, 945 Iowa.The fish-fry is expected to last until 7 p.m. The music will last as long as the musicians, all of whom are donating their time, are willing to play.Bands include Head, Hands & Feat, Lee McBee and Pat Nichols, Billy Ebeling, Mark and Sue Corbett from Blue 88, and LB3.

All the money raised — from a $7 cover charge, a silent auction and a raffle — will be spent on services or equipment, Sanders said.

“There’s no administrative cost or overhead that comes out of this,” she said. “It’s kept in a separate fund called the Arlyn West Memorial Special Needs Fund.”

West, a Lawrence Realtor and businessman, was a longtime advocate for people with disabilities. He died last year.