What better way to spend an afternoon with the whole family than to come on down to the beautiful city of Anaheim and walk through a bunch of booths to find things for the kids to do free of charge.
Sept. 9 was a hot one, but that did not stop people from going to the Kids Play Day event held on the Center Street Promenade from 11 a.m. through 3 p.m.
There were many different vendors as well as educational resources available for families to participate in.
Eva Bench a 10-year-old says the event was great and said, “I really liked making these jars,” as she showed a sensory jar, she created which consisted of water, food coloring and glitter at one of the booths.
One of the organizations that sponsored the event was the Children’s Dental Fun Zone.
Madison Sanchez, who was running the booth says, “What we do is we help children not feel traumatized coming into the dental office because it can be scary and we don’t want it to be.”
“We try to make that experience fun by having fish tanks in our office, we have fun decor, we even have TV screens and iPads in some of our offices, so it just makes kids feel more at ease,” Sanchez said as she went more in depth.
Sanchez says she had a lot of traffic at her booth and that the event was very organized and well put together.
Serenity Watson an 11 years old had walked around the event for quite some time and said the event was really fun. She bought a crocheted duck plushie because she thought it was very cute.
The Anaheim Public Library also set up a spot to talk to people about what they have to offer for anyone who wants to visit the library or create an account for a card, not just residents of Anaheim.
“Today we are promoting our different programs and services which right now we have Read with the Dogs, Knights of the Square Table Chess Club, Sew Fun and 3D Printing.”
“Not only that but we have the California State Park pass that we give out to the public if they want to visit the hiking trails,” said library advocate Luis Dircio.
Dircio says they try to push for kids to apply for a library card so they can use the computers and access different skill-developing courses such as coding and learning different languages.
Sophia Hall, Vivian Alvarez and Mia Vega were happy to attend the event while promoting their scholarship program Miss Anaheim Beautiful.
They do a lot of volunteer work throughout the city and all three girls excitedly said at the same time that they enjoyed the event and the way it was put together.
Stephanie Uzcategui who was in charge of the KidStrong booth says she got a lot of interest in the program from families at the event.
The program is open to kids from the minute they start walking to 11 years old and they are grouped based on age because it is a milestone accelerator program.
Uzecategui said, “Our goal is to build stronger, more confident children” and work on their character, brain and physical development.”