Organizers hoping for successful Capital City Children’s Day at Cascades Park

By Audriana Jones

Outlook writer

Despite having fewer than two months before putting on a first-time event to celebrate children, organizers are optimistic they can make it happen without any major hitch.

The event is the brainchild of P&A Strategies, a consulting firm that is collaborating with several other local business and non-profit organizations.

It takes place at Cascades Park on Sunday, starting at 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

An all-hands-on-deck approach was necessary to firm up plans for the event, said Natalia Mack, VP of Operations at P&A strategies.

“We’re just one part of the whole,” she said. “It was really easy because we reached out to who’s already doing things with children. We let them have the opportunity to get involved if it was something that they could fit in their schedule.”

Plans for the event that organizers have billed as “Capital City Children’s Day,” began to come together in April, said Mack. The  free event will highlight children and their achievements. 

A little more than week before the event, Mack said the final touches were being put on the segment that will be featured on stage. However, most of the 40 facilitators will have familiar roles.

“What they will be doing is providing whatever services they provide as a business,” Mack said. “For example, one of our facilitators is the Florida State University department of art. They are going to set up art stations for the children to interact with.” 

Several local school and volunteers will assist with the logistics, although most of the heavy lifting is being done by employees of P&A strategies. 

“Right now, what I’m doing is coordinating some of the events,” said Devin Mitchell, an intern with the firm. “I’ve been gathering emails of principals in the schools around town to get them to participate.”

One of the primary roles school personnel will have will be to assist with a depiction of Fox’s television kids’ quiz game show “Are You Smarter Than 5th Grader.”

In addition to live entertainment, another feature event will be a cops vs. kids dance off.

Throughout the event, children will be the focal point, Mack said.

“What we really wanted to do was find a way to put the children first,” she said. “How we measure our success is based off of the reaction of the children so we’ll see what happens.”