In less than one week, Baltimore County Public Schools students, teachers, staff, and families will gather to celebrate the upcoming school year at BCPSfest, the school system’s biggest and best back-to-school festival ever.

The festival will be held on Saturday, August 25, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., on the lower parking lot at Boscov’s at White Marsh Mall.

The first 250 students to visit at least 10 booths will receive a small gift pack of school supplies. Featured festival entertainment will be DJ Clark, Eastern Technical Varsity Cheerleaders, Perry Hall High School Gators Marching Band, and the Overlea High School Choir.

Vendors, representing the school system and community and business partners, will offer fun, family-friendly, hands-on activities and giveaways. This year’s vendors are:

From BCPS

• Alumni pennants – for sale, $5 each
• Career and Technology Education – robotics, 3D printing, simulated babies
• College and Career Readiness – goal-setting, picture booth
• Edgemere Elementary School – quiz game, drones
• English Language Arts – creating magnetic poetry
• Food and Nutrition Services – answering questions about school meals
• Health and Physical Education – rope jumping area and jump rope giveaway
• Library Media Programs – storytime booth with local celebrity readers
• Magnet Programs – information about application process, options
• Mathematics – math games
• Mobile Innovation Lab – LEGO construction, circuitry, computer programming
• Music and Dance Education – Wheel of Dance, interactive music activity
• Parentmobile – mobile resource center
• Resource Centers for Families and Schools – selling learning materials
• Schoology – Dept. of Innovative Learning – registering parents with MyBCPS accounts
• Science – launching straw rockets
• Social Studies – makerspace activity based on Ada’s Violin
• Transportation – bringing a school bus
• Visual Arts – printmaking bookmarks

From the community

• AETNA Better Health – cornhole game, information, giveaways
• Adventure Dental, Vision, and Ortho
• Baltimore County Health Dept. – WIC and energy assistance programs
• Baltimore County Police Dept., White Marsh – goggles to experience impairment
• Baltimore County Public Library Bookmobile
• Baltimore County Public Library, White Marsh branch
• Charley’s Grilled Subs – food vendor
• Chick-fil-A – food vendor
• Colgate-Palmolive Dental Van – dental screening, free toothbrushes
• Dave & Busters – food vendor
• Every Locker – printing and selling t-shirts
• Fire Museum of Maryland – bringing antique 1949 Mack fire engine
• First Financial Federal Credit Union – book giveaway and reading nook
• Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum
• iFly Baltimore – building parachutes with a wind tunnel simulator
• Irvine Nature Center – nature crafts, animal guests
• Maryland 529 – information about saving for college
• Medieval Times – bringing a princess or king
• Patient First – medlcal information, giveaways
• R.S.V.P. – Retired Senior Volunteer Program – volunteer opps for seniors and schools

This event is sponsored by The Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools.