Free school supplies, fun and family were the main attractions for Erika Miranda and her two sons at Saturday’s back-to-school festival at Kenosha’s lakefront.

“Winter is almost coming, and kids need to have fun before then,” said the Kenosha resident, whose sons Noah, 6, and Adam, 4, attend Somers Elementary School.

The family gathered notebooks, pencils and lots of information about helpful community and social agencies. The no-cost class necessities were a boost to helping stretch the family budget, she said.

“As a single mother, I can’t take my children to a lot of expensive places,” she said. “But this is a nice thing for all of us to enjoy.”

There was a steady march all afternoon of moms, dads, children, grandparents and friends to the booths and inflatable slide and playfields, free food and entertainment set up east of the Kenosha Public Museum, 5500 First Ave.

The idea behind the gathering was to have children, parents and school staff meet each other, have a good time, stock up on supplies and communicate the importance of staying in school.

This was the second back-to-school bash for the Kenosha Unified School District. In 2008, district officials were overwhelmed with some 7,000 visitors when they were expecting 1,500. The event was sponsored by Unified, the NAACP, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the city.

This year, the back-to-school celebration drew even more people, Pat Demos, Unified’s community school relations manager said.

“There was a steady flow, a larger space, so I think the number increased by a couple thousand,” Demos said. “The first year was a great success, and more people heard about it and decided to come.”

“What’s really great about this event is that the community comes together. We’ve had a lot of different support and help from different community agencies and business.”

There probably wasn’t anyone more appreciative of the gratis school provisions than Christa Noel, a Kenosha resident at the event with daughter Dominique White, 7, a Jefferson Elementary second-grader.

“This is very generous,” Christa said. “Kudos to whomever put together all of this. Times are hard, and every little bit helps. I’m so grateful.”

Michael Rider of Kenosha joked about how his posture was curving backward as he filled his black backpack with all sorts of goodies. He was there with one of his daughters, Pauline, 10, a Brass Community School student.

The event became a social gathering for them, being with family and meeting friends, too.

“So where else is there to be?” Michael asked. “It’s better than being a couch potato.

“Besides, the kids are all having fun, so you can’t get much better than this. Sure, some kids can afford to buy this stuff, but that doesn’t matter. It’s better to have too much than not enough.”