El Día de los Niños 2008, another success!

El Día de los Niños 2008 was another successful year in this event’s history! Approximately 1000 people attended the third annual event that was held at the Union Sports Club in Oregon, and the building was brimming with families, volunteers, service providers, entertainers and event organizers.

A variety of activities were provided for the children including: Cooking with Beatriz Kellman of UW Extension Nutrition Program; local certified child care providers offered play dough, sand painting, fishing game and information about quality Latino family child care and teaching children to be bilingual; a duck pond; a cake walk; Hector Alvarez of Bethel Community Services provided a variety of games for youth; face painting, inflatable jumping castle, and clowns keep the families happy, busy and active throughout the morning.

Informational tables were an important component of the event to provide the Latino community with information and resources that are locally available in Spanish. The number of informational tables was restricted due to space constraints and the agencies present this year were Wisconsin Association for Perinatal Care, The Respite Center, Madison Public Library, American Red Cross Badger Chapter, Safe Kids Coalition, Safe Communities Coalition, Dane County Parent Council, Dane County Job Service, Centro Hispano, UNIDOS, Bridge Lake Point Waunona Neighborhood Center, MATC, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, St. Mary's, Meriter, Children's Service Society, Madison and Dane County Public Health, Madison Children's Museum, Madison Gas & Electric and the City of Madison Police Department.

Entertainment was provided, including children traditional folk dance groups representing different Latin-American countries: Conectando Culturas, Tiawanaku, Sisani Dance Group. MC Mario Mendoza kept the crowd happy by signing happy birthday to those who had birthdays in the month of May. County Executive Kathleen Falk made a few remarks to acknowledge the importance of the event.

A light breakfast was served so that the attendees had the energy to participate in all of the activities! The event was open to the public, all activities and information were provided in Spanish and it was free to all attendees. Overall it was a wonderful day to celebrate Latino children and families!