When Joelle Bohn, owner of Joey Childrens Apparel, decided to start an event for children three years ago, how big it has become was beyond her wildest imagination.
“Actually, it just happened,” she said. “I can’t even tell you what the trick was, but I think it’s just our community is getting younger and younger as time goes on, so to cater to families there’s nothing that does that except the summer fair and in the middle of winter that’s a long stretch of time.”
Even the first year at the Ukrainian Orthodox Auditorium was so big, she had to move it to Gallagher Centre last year.
“It’s crazy to see how it’s grown,” Bohn said. “It’s a lot of man hours, but I’m so happy everyone has come on board with the idea that it’s going to be crazy but its something to do with the kids”
With the expansion, she was able to open it up to booths for parents as well.
“When we did the first one we only did catering to kids because we only had 27 booths, but now we have 65 so when you grow to that you have to get a little bit out of your target market and we thought we might as well do something for the mom’s too.”
The beneficiary of this year’s event is the Brayden Ottenbreit Close Cuts for Cancer charity.
“We wanted a community organization that was kid-based and to give back to kids,” Bohn said. “We had a few people apply, but sick kids kind of hits home for a lot of people and if we can help out some kids in the province, it’s going to be awesome for us.
The funds, which she expects to be in the neighborhood of $8,000, will buy chemotherapy accessible shirts for cancer patients and trophies for the kids who complete the treatment.
While Bohn downplays her role in the success of the event, Greg Ottenbreit, Close Cuts chair does not.
“To see where she’s grown from to actually needing the Gallagher Centre to be totally full of booths and pretty much shoulder-to-shoulder with people; it’s impressive,” he said.
