AUBURN - The Field Days at Booker T. Washington Community Center have become a staple of the center's summertime activities, one that has spanned generations.

“This has been going on for a long time,” said Booker T. Washington program director Patricia Manuel. “I've been coming here since I was small.”

All these years, both attending and helping to plan the event have given Manuel a unique perspective.

“It is busy,” Manuel said. “We start planning right around the end of the school year for this. A lot of planning goes into it. But it is good. It is really just a good time for people to get together and be with the community.”

Manuel estimates that more than 200 people attend the Saturday afternoon festivities annually.

“We get people coming and going all day,” Manuel said. “There are so many people here all day long.”

The event strives to have a bit of something for everybody, with various community organizations like SAVAR and the Auburn Police Department, which was on site doing child identifications and it also gives the Booker T. Washington Center the opportunity to spread the word about what it can offer.

“This gives other organizations a chance to get out,” Manuel said. “They can come here and get their message out and we also use it as a way to start doing sign ups for the upcoming school year.”

But predominantly the focus is on children and fun.

“Everything is really child oriented,” Manuel said.

“All the games and rides and everything it is really geared toward children and we have chicken dinners and hot dogs and hamburgers and cotton candy and snow cones.”

This year the event had a number of inflatable bouncing rooms and games like pedestal joust from Auburn Party Rentals.

It didn't take long for these to start drawing crowds of kids.

“It all looks pretty fun,” Aiden Sodan, 11, said. “But especially the rides are really fun.”

Other attractions included a dunking booth, face painting, raffles and a variety of carnival style games.

Victoria Natale, 8, had her father, Bruce, running from station to station.

“We're going to the games now,” Victoria said.

“And then we're coming back to the rides. I like the bouncing and you can scream as much as you want to, that is really, really fun.”

But even as his daughter had him running around, Bruce was able to take in the whole event as it raced passed him.

“I think it is a really good event,” Bruce said. “I think it is a nice thing for them to do something like this for the kids and a great way to put a cap on the summer really.”