The City Council of La Laguna has prepared an extensive program of activities for the celebration of the International Day of Families, an event with a long tradition in the municipality and which returns this weekend to the squares and streets of the city with different thematic areas and Proposals for all ages. Several municipal areas, local associations and the children and young people of the Municipal Council for Children and Adolescents have been involved in this initiative and in the design of the activities, to recover meeting places and offer healthy leisure spaces for all ages after two years of restrictions.
The Mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, and the Councilor for Social Welfare, Rubens Ascanio, the Area that organizes this proposal, today presented all the details of the Day of the Families of La Laguna, a meeting in which they were accompanied by the and the mayors of the departments that have been involved and collaborate in this edition, which are Security, Culture, Commerce, Tourism, Municipal Services, Sports, Environment, Youth and Festivals.
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez stressed that, with this celebration and after two years of restrictions, “we will finally return to occupy our squares and streets, our places of coexistence. La Laguna is once again rejuvenated on such a special day for lagoon men and women of all ages, a day that we were looking forward to with great enthusiasm”. In addition, he called on all families “to join us this weekend” and thanked Social Welfare and all areas of the City Council involved in organizing this program for “this great cross-cutting work of all staff.”
Rubens Ascanio recalled that the Family Day occupies a fundamental place in the Laguna agenda, a municipality that is recognized by UNICEF as a Child Friendly City. “It has always been an important day in La Laguna, a date on which we claim the diversity of families and the rights of children, with actions for all ages and that are aimed at offering a break in daily life and having a quality time with loved ones.
Ascanio defined this event as a well-deserved tribute to families, “in all their forms and diversity, after what they experienced during the pandemic, because they have been the center of resistance and the basis of care, mutual help, solidarity, of support and, also, of rescue in the face of vulnerability. After two years in which the date was commemorated “with online activities, scattered throughout the territory and with capacity controls, we return to our streets to enjoy with the whole family, to ‘lagunate’ and live a joyful, transgressive, diverse municipality, innovative, healthy and caring”.
The mayor explained that, this Saturday, the city will be divided into six zones (called Circus, Games, Fantasy, Earth, Geek and Sports), with more than fifty tents and more than 70 activities and workshops aimed at all ages, ” recreational-educational proposals that will also allow us to value the entire commercial, cultural, festive, environmental promotion fabric and that of our social entities, which will also be very present. It will be a Family Day that we will remember for a long time and not only because it will be the first that we can do with all the conditions in this decade”.
In addition, he expressed his gratitude to all the technical teams and municipal staff “for their involvement and collective effort, because the Day of the Families of La Laguna would not be possible without all the people who are participating and collaborating in all areas”, in addition of groups, companies and local entities, such as the Zona Centro Commercial Association and social, environmental and neighborhood organizations.
The main day will be this Saturday (May 14), with parades along the main roads of the Historic Complex and proposals in the squares of La Concepción, the Cathedral, Cristo and Hermano Ramón, as well as the inner courtyard of the Autonomous Sports Organization and the San Agustin Street.
The latter will become a Geek Zone throughout the day, one of the most original and popular proposals, with a geek and collector’s market in which the specialized shops of the municipality will participate; an exhibition of toys from the 1970s and 1980s, a K-Pop contest, workshops and an exhibition of illustrators and comics, handicrafts and board games, as well as Play Station, Arcade and Scalextric areas.
Another of the main areas will be the surroundings of La Concepción, which will become an area for games and music in the open air. The stage set up next to the church tower will host musical performances by Proyecto Anti and La Movida, in addition to those by Güicho Estévez, El Mago Xerach and Clownbaret, all accompanied by the sound of batucadas. In addition, it will have a toy library, a rest area and tents in which the municipal associations will offer various children’s workshops.
The Plaza de la Catedral will host various environmental activities. Called Zona Tierra, it will offer workshops and crafts with the Fundación Canarias Recicla and with Juegaprende. And very close by, in the courtyard of the headquarters of the Autonomous Sports Organization (Calle Alcalde Alonso Suárez Melián) the Fantasy Zone will be located, where you can enjoy storytelling with Antonio Conejo, puppets and the performance of the storyteller Güicho Estévez.
The Plaza Hermano Ramón will host circus shows without animals and the Plaza del Cristo will be the sports venue for the day, a space in which the activities will continue the following day (May 15) and from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thus, in this large open-air space next to the Municipal Market, there will be a wide range, with a climbing wall and inflatable sumo wrestlers, bike, agility and pedal car circuits; skate, table football and chess. In addition to stick fighting, Canary ball, precision soccer goal, 3×3 soccer, badminton, basketball, mini-gym, guided activities, mini-golf, alternative sports or traditional games, among others.
Child Friendly Municipality
La Laguna has been recognized as a UNICEF Child Friendly City, which implies the commitment of the local government and its allies to design effective public policies that promote the precepts of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the promotion of child participation and adolescent, and the promotion of alliances between all the actors related to children at the municipal level.
Within the framework of this initiative, the municipality continues to develop the Plan for Children and Adolescents of La Laguna (PILLA), which includes 143 measures distributed among the different areas of the City Council, other administrations, the educational community or the NGOs of the municipality, as well as a consultative and participation Council, made up of the minors of the municipality and that actively participates in actions that have to do with childhood and adolescence, in which the Family Day is included.
2022 motto
The International Day of Families has been celebrated, since 1994 and by UN agreement, on May 15 of each year, in order to raise awareness among the population about the role of the family in the education and training of minors. from early childhood, as well as fostering family ties.
The theme chosen for this year focuses on “Families and urbanization”, a motto with which it is intended to raise awareness of the importance of developing sustainable urban policies and deepen their impact on gender, family life, the importance of safe and affordable housing, child and youth development, globalization, green spaces, promoting civic life and participation in urban areas, social cohesion and stability.
