GONZALES - Students enjoyed music, splash pads, snow-balls and free school supplies Saturday at the Ascension 4 Youth Fest Back to School Bash.

Oxy Petroleum sponsored the event and provided kids with backpacks, supplies and uniforms — all for free.

Council member Chase Melancon, who also works with Oxy, says they gave out 500 backpacks last year, and this school year it's doubled. 

“We’re giving away a 1,000 school backpacks, with school supplies in it, along with 850 vouchers for the school uniforms that were donated by Sacs,” Melancon said.

It's the second year the Ascension 4 Youth Fest was held in Gonzales and it's a way to assist parents with their back to school shopping. 

"We have parents with new and young kids. If you have multiple kids it can get really expensive to send them back to school," Melancon said.

The whole community got involved to help prepare kids for the school year. 

"We got the sheriff's office to donate the food for everybody, the Ascension Parish Government is here, they've donated many things. It's really all the branches of the community that are here to give back to the school," Melancon said.

Melancon says he hopes to continue to serve the students of Ascension Parish. 

"It's a wonderful turnout, I hope it's twice as big next year," Melancon said.

Saturday, Aug. 3, Donaldsonville will have their youth fest at the WAG Center from 10 a.m. to  2 p.m.