Great Bend is a great place to live, a great place to be a church member, a good environment for children, and several seasonal attractions that make you love the town more and more. With all of this, Great Bend still lacks places where families can enjoy entertainment for free. With only a Wal-Mart to serve everyone of their basic needs and some more expensive shops downtown main street, there really is not anything for families to do without money. We have the zoo and playgrounds, but that is really the only thing for a ‘family fun spot’, and with winter on the horizon, that is not an option. Should Great Bend have more family fun hangout spots and events?

Yes, Great Bend is expanding by the month, which means more stores and buildings are being built and more restaurants are coming in, such as Dominos and Daylight Donuts. Even though this will be a nice addition to the town, it still hides the fact that there are very few places for families to have fun and to hangout at. Daylight Donuts and Dominoes are still relatively expensive, and definitely not a place to hang out with your family.

Great Bend High School student Milena Carbajal said that “I have lived here all my life and there are not many fun family activities to do in Great Bend.”

Instead of adding more food places, we should work on arranging free entertainment for families to come and have a good time together. If that is some type of building for families to hangout and have a good time or it could be local events every couple of days.

Senior Malachi Wasson said that Great Bend “should have more family fun events,” he continues, “we have a good amount of events for a small town but there could definitely be more of them. And they need to be broadcasted better.”

Funds can get in the way, but with some modifications in the budget, we could work our way around it. If anything, it will attract more people to live in Great Bend, which will gradually boost Great Bend’s economy and budget.

Overall, you cannot please everyone in Great Bend. Some people may think that we have enough right now, while others think that there is not enough. Adding more events is only going to help Great Bend, so there is no negative effect on having family events more often, so there is no reason not to.