PORTSMOUTH—Hill View Retirement Center is offering their first-ever Community Fun Day on Saturday, July 30th from 12 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The event, which is totally free and open to the public, is one of the ways that the retirement center is working to stay involved in the Portsmouth community, according to Rodney Hamilton, Director of Marketing and Purchasing for Hill View.

“We have been using the tagline ‘[m]aking a difference in the lives around us,’” explained Hamilton. “We do everything we can to give our residents the best experience possible, and we want to extend that same mission to our community. We want to do things in our community that have a positive impact/ influence.”

To put that positive community outreach into practice, Hill View’s first-ever Community Fun Day will offer just what the name promises: a day packed with fun activities for the entire community to enjoy, not just residents of the retirement center.

And by Hamilton’s estimate, the price tag for the event can’t be beat. The event is open to the public, and admission, entertainment, food, games, and activities are completely free.

“We wanted to do a summer fun day before everyone’s back in school, and to just have an option for people to have free entertainment. Everything we are doing is completely free—the food, the games, everything is free,” Hamilton said.

The event hosts a vendor fair with numerous local vendors and, while they will be selling their respective goods, the rest of the day’s events and fare are free to the public, including musical entertainment, a professional magician, balloon animals, inflatables, carnival games, a petting zoo, hamburgers and hotdogs, and more.

Free facility tours will also be available to anyone interested in learning more about what Hill View has to offer its residents. Hamilton says that while facility tours aren’t the central focus of the day, he wants anyone interested to know that the facility just lowered their rates for independent living as of July 1st.

Attendees of Saturday’s event at Hill View will also have a unique opportunity to take part in a social media challenge which could help them win a big prize—and all it takes is a selfie and a hashtag.

“If you take a picture of yourself at the event and post it on Facebook with the hashtag #HillViewFunDay your name will be put in for a drawing to win a prize $250 Amazon Gift card,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton said that providing a free and accessible way for the community to have fun together is important to Hill View.And he hopes that area residents will turn up to celebrate with them.

“One of our main goals is being more involved in the general community. A lot of people forget we are here or think that we are just a nursing home. We are just trying to do some events, […] we’ve got a great space for that kind of thing,” he said.

For a map of Hill View’s campus, a full schedule of events for the Community Fun Day, and for more updates, follow Hill View Retirement Center on Facebook.