The Gainsboro YMCA will hold the 86th annual Father & Son & Family Banquet on Saturday, June 16. This year's event kicks off at 3 p.m. Saturday at Lucy Addison Middle School. Dinner begins at 5 p.m. and will include awards for the oldest father and son in attendance as well as other accolades.
The event has a proud history of honoring the relationships between fathers and sons - primarily in northwest Roanoke. For the past few years, however, the doors have opened to other family members as well.
"Back when this first started it was strictly limited to fathers and sons. But over the years, we realized that we really wanted this to be about family. So hopefully this year you're going to see grandmothers and granddaughters and uncles and nephews and just whoever really wants to come out as a family. We just want to impact them with this event," said Gainsboro YMCA executive director Jonathan Pait.
Pait says the event is an important part of the Y's outreach to the community. He says he isn't surprised the event has been around so long.
"Years ago the YMCA decided to have an event that would really impact the families, particularly in northwest Roanoke and bring people in to speak to the hearts of the people in this community. And for 86 years that’s pretty much what we’ve been doing," he said.