This weekend girls ages 5 to 18-years-old will have the opportunity to enjoy food, fun, activities and prizes with a lock-in at William Griggs Recreation Center.

The Issa Girl Thing Girls Lock In will be hosted by the Teens R Us Girls Club, which has been working in the community for 35 years, and was made possible by community partnerships.

“It is being sponsored by Dr. Jimmy McCamey. He had a vision that he wanted to give something back to the community, so last year he started a lock in for boys,” said volunteer Monica Hill. “This time he decided he wanted to do something for the girls.”

In addition to McCamey’s contribution, local businesses have donated prizes for the girls, motivational speakers will speak at the event and workshops on make-up, cake baking and more will be part of the event.

“They are going to design their own pillow cases,” Hill said. “They are going to make slime. They are going to create shirts. They are going to do a sip and paint with juice. They are going to have motivational speakers from Clark Atlanta [University], Communities in Schools, various sororities from around here and discussions on drugs and bullying. They are going to have a makeup artist to show them how to do proper makeup technique, age appropriate. A chef will show them how to bake a cake from scratch. Just good food and a good time.”

A variety of prizes from local businesses like gift cards will be given out throughout the night.

“We will have different drawings throughout the night,” said Linda Ogletree Towns, a volunteer. “The community has poured out helping us. We have a lot of volunteers, and we are going to do a lot of activities. They are going to be tired because we are going to be busy.”

The event’s organizers said that all of these activities come with one simple goal.

“The goal is to build fellowship amongst the community and build self-esteem and to keep the girls [where they are] doing positive things in our community,” Towns said.

Towns and Hill said that they hope through events like this overnight lock-in will show girls in the community they have somewhere to go during good and bad times. Those relationships extend far beyond the one night though. The Teens R Us program meets regularly throughout the summer.

“It brings in peer relationships, so they get to meet other people in the community,” Towns said. “It also keeps them involved in doing something within their own neighborhood that is positive. That is what Teens R Us does. They do a great job [at that], and that is why I volunteer with them. — They are always active in this community. They do dances. They do volunteer work. They are always a call away when you need something.”

The group sponsors voter registration drives, scholarships and other events. Teens R Us is currently taking applications for new members as well. The group meets daily.

“We don’t want any girls to feel like they can’t come up and join and stay active during the summer,” Towns said. “They do a lot of community work.”

Girls ages 5 to 18 years old from throughout the community are welcome to attend the free event. Applications for the lock in are available at the William Griggs Recreation Center at 716 Glenn Robertson Drive. Applications will be accepted until 6 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, contact Montest Cameron (706) 402-1107.