Article

Southtown Star Newspaper Article

Familes enjoy Tinley Kids' Expo

March 9, 2008
BY Marty Hawrysko Correspondent

Several thousand children and parents from the Chicago area packed inside the Tinley Park Convention Center this past weekend for the third annual Kids Expo.

"It's about kids and families," said Caroline O'Connell, publisher of Family Time Magazine, one of the expositions' sponsors. "We do this Kids Expo for a fun day out and at the same time, you can check out everything under one roof --. I think it's the biggest and best event in the southland."

According to O'Connell, the exposition attracts families outside the South Suburbs, including the west suburbs, the city of Chicago and Indiana. More than 20,000 people attended last year's exposition and the same amount was expected this year.

The exposition brought close to 150 venders, giving businesses exposure by setting exhibits to attract children and parents. According to O'Connell, almost all vendors from last year's exposition returned this year.

Among some of the attractions for children included a climbing wall, face painting, a fast pitch baseball exhibit, and a Guitar Hero contest. Exhibits hoping to attract parents included tutoring services, preschools, surrounding neighborhood park districts, special contests and sweepstakes, including vacation getaways.

The Little Hands Learning Center, a Chicago-area preschool with accelerated programs, was one of the educational vendors in attendance.

"[We want to] reach out into the communities, let them know what our program provides to the students," said Catherine Griffin, executive director for the preschool. According to Griffin, the exposition gave the preschool exposure to south suburban parents with young children who commute to Chicago each day. Griffin added that many of their students are from the South Suburbs.

One of the most popular exhibits was a cover search contest where children get their pictures taken in hopes of appearing on a future cover of Family Time Magazine.

"We're also looking for talent--. in modeling and acting--," said John Voulo, president of Glamour Model Talents. According to Voulo, the agency will review the photographs and "use [them] as a marketing mechanism to find nice opportunities in the industry for them."

"We heard there were a lot of great opportunities to learn about different things for the kids," said Heidi Hall, an Orland Park resident. "We came here too for the cover search contest today and to be part of that."

"We came here for our 3 1/2 year old," said Paul Gilbert, from Clarendon Hills. "While there are some beneficial things that we found here, it probably wasn't quite what we expected in terms of his age group...." According to Gilbert, most of the exhibits didn't offer as much activity as he expected for younger children.

The Hinckley Springs exhibit was promoting a special sale while giving away free cups of water in hopes of getting children and parents to stop, according to Dennis Populorum, a Hinckley Springs sales consultant. "We had a real good response last year, that's why we're [here] again this year."

"We've enjoyed it so far," said Jeff Gustafson, of Plainfield. "It's a little crowded, but we're getting some good things out of it."