On Sept. 27, the Weber County League of Women Voters will be hosting the Community Civics Family Festival in conjunction with Mormon Women for Ethical Government, Women’s Work, A Bolder Way Forward for Utah and the Ogden branch of the NAACP from 2-6 p.m. at Fort Buenaventura.

Terri McCulloch, president of the Weber County League of Women Voters, told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday that the festival promises to be a learning experience.

“It’s focused around civics and knowledge about civics,” she said. “(Students) don’t get civics education, really, in school anymore. We’re just trying to get it out there so that the public and kids know — in a fun way — some of the things that they should know, like the three different branches of government or how does a bill become a law. We’re just trying to get them educated, but we want it to be fun for them.”

McCulloch said the format will include several area organizations presenting games and trivia at tables that will help kids learn different facets of civics throughout the afternoon. There will also be music and potentially food trucks at the event.

She said the civics festival was held for the first time last year, but it didn’t come out quite as organizers wanted due to scheduling conflicts with other major events in the area.

“There were three other things going on that were big things and we were competing with them,” she said. “We learned you’d better check the calendar. … We didn’t get very many people.”

McCulloch said the local Democratic and Republican Party chapters have been invited along with area candidates and several civics-minded groups from around the area.

She said the desired takeaway of the event is simple — a better understanding of one’s government.

“We want them to be able to walk out knowing something else about the way government is run than they knew when they walked in,” she said. “If you ask a little kid nowadays — and it’s happened so many times, I can’t even tell you — ‘Who is the current president?’ Our usual answer is not the one that currently is president. The first one that we got that is great is that George Washington is the president.  We want to educate the kids on what government really is. How come this is illegal? How come this is unconstitutional? What’s the hierarchy? When they leave, we hope they have a little bit more knowledge about the way government actually works.”

She said she’s open to making this an annual event, but that is yet to be decided.