Kids America celebrates its 20th anniversary
Kids America celebrated its 20th anniversary over the New Year’s weekend with a party on Friday evening, Dec. 31, 2021, and an appreciation day for sponsors and employees and their families on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022, to show thanks to those who have participated in activities and memberships over the years. Kids America is grateful for more than 100 businesses who have sponsored through advertising over the last 20 years and invited them to celebrate on New Year’s Day.
Isaac Bush, executive director for Kids America said, “We have an annual New Year’s Eve party that started back in early 2000 when Sue Renner Miller was here. We didn’t have one last year but this year we were able to host it again. We had about 85 kids plus adults come Friday night on New Year’s Eve. It’s our 20th anniversary this year so we invited as many of our sponsors as we could as well as the workers along with their families from the businesses that we’ve had over the years. Generally, we are closed on New Year’s Day but we were open this year so the families and friends could come and enjoy. There’s nothing to do on New Year’s Day so we decided to thank all of our sponsors and families by inviting them to come. We’re nonprofit so usually we don’t spend a ton of money. This year we invested a little bit and opened on a day when we usually are not, so that people who have invested in Kids America can come and enjoy the day with their families.”
Sponsors, Papa John’s, Buehler’s and Wal-Mart contributed to the New Year’s Day event. Buehler’s provided food trays and all the decorations, Papa John’s brought pizza both days and Pepsi has been a sponsor since the beginning.
“We had to order 10 extra pizzas Friday night,” Bush said.
Kids America’s anniversary was actually in November 2021, but they chose New Year’s to celebrate because there was another activity going on that day.
“In the past 20 years we have served tens of thousands of kids and we’ve had hundreds of thousands of people come through our doors,” Bush said. “We have become one of the larger attractions in the community and Coshocton City is doing a great job with Main Street, the parks, the Visitors Bureau, Roscoe Village and all the wineries that are bringing people into Coshocton. We’ve found a pretty good niche since 2010 with some basketball, baseball and volleyball tournaments which draw people from outside of our county, as well.”
Rachelle Lowe was one of many people who enjoyed the anniversary event.
“This is our first time to be here doing this,” she said. “I’m an employee and my kids play soccer so we pretty much live here, but this is something different today. We appreciate them doing this for us. Soccer Darts is a popular game. They kick the soccer ball, and it sticks to the target. My daughter Taytum said this game was what she wanted for Christmas. The kids are a having a blast. They are running their energy out and getting together with friends. I have four kids total and they’re all here.”
Susan Jackson from Bounce N Around was excited to be part of the event.
“We’re happy to see all the kids having such a good time,” she said. “That’s the best part of this. We like to have a variety of inflatables like things for little kids, slides, obstacle courses and other things for the older kids that get bored playing on these after a while. These inflatables will definitely entertain the kids, as you can see they don’t stop. They run from one thing to the next. It’s great that Kids America has this for the kids. They had the party last night and again this afternoon for employee appreciation and their sponsors. We do events for churches, schools and private events and we are lucky to have this.”
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