Kick off summer with free hot dogs, community service

Go Ask Mom's own Ilina Ewen is part of a group of local bloggers who are hosting a "Better-Than-A-Picnic Picnic" in Raleigh's Moore Square on Friday.

The event includes free Hebrew National hot dogs along with family-friendly entertainment and activities and community service opportunities from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the square, which sits across from Marbles Kids Museum.

In-kind diaper donations are requested to benefit Interact and the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. Participants also will fill activity bags, which will be given to kids with siblings in local hospitals. Organizers are looking for donations for the bags as well, including stickers, crayons, colored pencils, coloring books, you-yos, comic books and playing cards.