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PEAK Initiative’s Endless Summer Block Party Hits Tiefenthaler Park Thursday — Free Shoes, a Groundbreaking, and Mike Taylor

By Marcus Hart · August 19, 2026 · 2 min read

MILWAUKEE — Kellogg PEAK Initiative is closing out the summer the way it opened it: with the whole neighborhood in one park.

PEAK’s Endless Summer Block Party returns to Tiefenthaler Park this Thursday, Aug. 20, from 3 to 7 p.m. — free and open to the public. The celebration caps off a summer PEAK has built around the theme “Bring Back the Village,” and organizers say this is the biggest expression of it yet.

“This celebration is about more than the end of summer celebration,” said Estevan Galicia, PEAK’s Director of Milwaukee Programs, in a release announcing the event. “It’s about bringing the village together, creating opportunities for young people, connecting families to resources, and uplifting the community that makes PEAK what it is.”

A Groundbreaking Before the Party Starts

The afternoon opens on a more formal note: at 2:30 p.m. sharp, the Milwaukee Parks Foundation will break ground on new playground equipment coming to Tiefenthaler Park — part of a broader push to create new and enhanced gathering space for the neighborhood. Then the block party takes over.

What’s Happening

The headline draw is a basketball clinic led by former NBA player Mike Taylor, run in partnership with The Hoops Collective, open to teens and adults. It leads into a 3-on-3 tournament at 6 p.m. for ages 13–18, with onsite registration handled by Taylor-Made Foundation and The Hoops Collective.

Elsewhere in the park: a free shoe giveaway from Jacarrie Kicks for Kids, a live DJ, breakdancing, a bounce house, face painting, free haircuts and braids, and a Kiss Korean Barbeque food truck handing out free food. Community partners including Redd’s Barbershop, Your Move MKE, Midtown Neighborhood Alliance, and Milwaukee Parks Foundation will run resource tables throughout the afternoon.

PEAK has served more than 500 Milwaukee youth in grades 1–12 each year since 2003 through free, year-round programming based at Tiefenthaler Park.

UNJ Will Be There

Urban News Journal will be on the ground Thursday for the groundbreaking and the block party — catch our coverage on urbannewsjournal.com and across our socials afterward.

Endless Summer Block Party — Thursday, Aug. 20, 3–7 p.m. (groundbreaking ceremony at 2:30 p.m.), Tiefenthaler Park. Free and open to the public. More info: peakinitiative.org.

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