The cheering, and screaming, could be heard across Bayfront Festival Park as kids hit the track for the first Young Athletes Foundation’s Wednesday Night at the Races of the summer on July 2nd.

We usually don’t see the popular race events until a little later in the summer but they decided to start up early this season for Navy week.

“Wednesday night the races typically doesn’t start till later in July, but when Navy week comes to town we figured it was a good time to have a special event here at Bayfront,” said Zach Schneider with Grandma’s Marathon. “The Navy brought out one of their Navy bands they brought out their parachute team and really a special opportunity for the kids to not only start this series a little bit earlier this summer but also to get to see some stuff that not every community in the world gets to see.”

The Navy band was there and the Navy parachute team the Leap Frogs brought their own excitement to the party.

“You’re a part of something that’s bigger than yourself so being able to reach out to a community is what it’s all about right?” said Cody Rochon, a demonstration jumper for the United States Navy Parachute Team. “It’s really special and meaningful to us that we get to have an opportunity like this.”

The next night at the races is July 9th at the lake superior zoo, and you can find their whole schedule here.