Two moves, a massive spring snowstorm, a downpour of rain, a lot of community support, and 57,000 steps later, The Return of SuperKids 2024 indeed took place this past weekend. But it almost didn’t.

The Most Unlikely of Heroes and How a Real Estate Company Rescued SuperKids

It’s been four years since Yellow Scene Magazine’s beloved SuperKids Expo took place. Prepandemic SuperKids Expo had grown to 6,500 people in 2019. (Sidenote: In 2016 it was 8,000 people, thanks to Stephen Tebo, who brought the Batmobile) But then COVID hit, and SuperKids Expo was no longer providing families a super fun free day to play and be whoever they wanted to be. 

For 24 years, YS has covered important education and social topics for families. Since inception, we have been proud to have earned over 160 awards for excellence, with over 50 awards specifically for education. We wanted a way to help our local camps, schools, and after-school programs to reach local families in person, and in 2009, SuperKids Expo was born. SuperKids Expo became an iconic Boulder County event for eleven years, running through 2019. It was already planned for 2020; you know the rest of the story, it didn’t. 

The decision to bring SuperKids Expo back in 2024 was a big one. We no longer had the same size staff we previously had. It had been four long years. Would anyone even remember it? Would it still serve our community? Finances are not easy for local media, so would we even have the money? Community feedback was strong, and we decided to start planning. The Fowler Group, Paul’s Coffee + Tea (which has a killer bluegrass jam every Sunday), and Cosmo’s Pizza all helped with sponsorship seed money. Jax Outdoor Gear provided the location. Now, it was just a matter of organizing vendors and entertainment.

In years past, we had always picked the Superhero movie theme of the year for our event, but in 2024, we decided we wanted Barbie. We had no idea how significant this choice would become.

Barbie was born in 1958 and was the first modern doll for girls to play with. Before Barbie, little girls were given baby dolls to teach them how to become mothers, but Barbie, well, she was dazzling. She was single, lived in her own apartment, had her own job, had a boyfriend, and wore high heels! In 1968, the first Black Barbie, Christie, was introduced. Barbie was a modern representation of what it meant to be an Independent woman free to make her own choices. 

Black Dolls Matter-Barbie’s First Black Friend, Christie

Of course, the movie’s success encouraged us, but as we approached the actual date of the event, a huge obstacle presented itself — the weather. We had no idea how much we would have to draw on Barbie’s spirit. After all, she tells us, “You Can Be Anything!”

Barbie, Little Princess Spa, Superior CO

First, the original date, April 20th, was snowed out, so we moved it to our rain date the following weekend. Of course, we saw a beautiful 75° the next day, on Sunday. However, on Monday, weather predictions told us there would be torrential rain on our new April 27th date. 

Now, what to do? We had already moved the date once! Disaster was quickly approaching. 

We reached out to all of our amazing vendors, who turned out to be SuperHeroes themselves. 

We asked them what they wanted us to do: Should we try to find an indoor location or move the date again? They gave us the green light to find an indoor spot if we could. We set about to find a place to welcome our big outdoor event inside their facility, which was set to happen in less than five days. 

We called everyone: the school district, private schools, warehouses, event venues, and private businesses. All said no; it was too short notice. After all, the event was just a few days away. 

On Tuesday, our publisher drove around Lafayette, trying desperately to find a place to move to. On a whim, she entered The District in Lafayette, across the street from our first location at Jax Outdoor Gear. There was no way they would say yes. They have a multitude of businesses we would be invading as well. But we decided to ask anyway – we had nothing to lose. We were given Helen’s phone number; she was the person to talk to. We told Helen about our situation, and within hours, she had Dutton Commercial’s blessing, and they generously said yes, but only if we could get the other businesses to sign off. 

In the true spirit of SuperKids, the community came together. Button Rock Bakery & Kenny Lou’s Deli, Otis Craft Collective, Flatirons Community Church, Nok’s Donuts, and Base Camp Coworking all said yes! It was a go. 

Now, the hard work of redoing everything came. From the signs we had already made to the site map to social media, everything we had done needed to be redone, including all of our advertising with the wrong date and location on it. Even the new signs we had just made to announce the new date were wrong. It was too late to reprint an ad or the flyers we had already distributed. Thankfully, Post-Net of Lafayette put a rush order together for new-new yard signs, and we started plastering the streets on Thursday and Friday. 

Superkids 2024 NEW Sign with new date and location, Louisville Cyclery

We moved a major event indoors to a fantastic location in four days. Now, would anyone show up?

Our vendors deserve the Academy Award as well. Rather than yelling at us for all the problems moving because of the weather, they came out and supported us. They showed up in the rain, dealt with typos, rushed reorganization of their spaces, and a novice event layout (we learned some things about indoor space, music, and sound). They juggled these changes with us and made The Return of SuperKids Expo 2024 not just amazing but a super amazing event. 

One parent told us that her child celebrated their birthday at SuperKids. Imagine that we gave a child an amazing party.

All of these organizations deserve our love. A HUGE thank you to them for overcoming obstacles and giving our community a wonderful way to spend a rainy day being whoever they want to be.

Able To Sail, Ark Ninja, Bennetts Karate, Blue Mountain Ranch, Butterfly Pavillion, Code Ninjas, Colorado Mountain Ranch, Crossroads School of Longmont, Crystal Ski Shop, Dogtopia, The Fowler Group, Kutandara Center, Lafayette Music, Little Princess Spa, A Quilter’s Corner, School of Rock Boulder, Shredder Flyfishing, Sister Carmen, The Spot Climbing Gym, Square State Skate, St Louis Catholic School, and the YMCA of Northern Colorado showed up with cool interactive games and activities and the fun they provided made us forget all about the rain outside.

School of Rock, photo by Jordan Neumeyer Photography

School of Rock Boulder, Kutandara, and Bennett’s Karate gave powerful performances. State Rep. Junie Joseph and Lafayette Mayor JD Mangat talked about their journeys to becoming who they are today. Inspiration Fitness from Golden drove up to help get us out of our seats, leading us in the Barbie Dance to top off the fun.

Junie Barbie! (Rep. Junie Joseph)

JD Ken (Lafayette Mayor JD Mangat)

Face-to-Face Painting provided the awesome designs, and balloon art was provided by XL Entertainment and The Fowler Group. Square State Skate taught some skate tricks, and American Ninja contestant and Ark Ninja owner Nathan “Gnarly Nate” Hansen provided the obstacle course and strength training (our publisher didn’t last that long on the bars). Check out his story. It is also a journey of overcoming hard obstacles and achieving tremendous success. He truly is just as nice in person as he is on TV.

Never Doubt Gnarly Nate Hansen | NBC’s American Ninja Warrior

Front Range Inflatables pivoted three times with us because of date and location but also changed the bounce house’s size at the last minute. They also provided additional entertainment at the last minute since the Rock Wall couldn’t fit. Thank you to Big Air Jumpers for changing dates and dealing with a day before cancellation. A shout out to Eldorado Spring Water, whose pool is opening this summer after years of being closed, provided extra water for free. Even tho it was pouring outside, it wasn’t the water we could drink.

Seb’s Wood-fired Pizza braved the rain by serving the most delicious pizza from his food truck. Because of the weather, outside business was much slower than we had hoped, but the pizza was still incredible. We really want to give a shout-out to Seb, who is available for hire at any event. He will also show up for you no matter the obstacles, even when others can’t. 

As a news outlet that remains true to strict journalism standards, the world has changed a lot, and it is no small battle for our heroes and heroines — the journalists and the artists — who create the great stories we publish throughout the year. We are celebrating our 24th year of award-winning journalism this year, but we can only carry on because of the amazing support of this community. 

To all who came out in the pouring rain to make this day happen, from the 800+ people who showed up in the bad weather to all the vendors, performers, sponsors, and hosts, you are our heroes and had more impact than you may even know. A lot of families had a fun way to spend a rainy day. Happy Birthday to the little boy who celebrated with us!

Barbie taught us that not only can we be anything we want to be, but we can also overcome anything together. (The secret is not to give up.)

Photography provided by Jordan Neumeyer and Shavonne Blades

The post Not all Heroes Wear Capes-The Return of Superkids 2024 appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.