Hosting a child’s birthday party can be hectic, but at the Lenexa Rec Center, it’s easy. That’s because the staff takes care of the details, allowing parents to focus on celebrating. Activities Attendant I Adelyn R. sees that firsthand.
“As a party attendant I also try my best to personally connect with the birthday kid to make their birthday feel more special,” she said. “We also try our absolute best to make sure that the party host/parent isn’t super stressed and knows everything they need to know.”
Adelyn understands how memorable a great birthday party can be because she still remembers one of her own childhood celebrations.
“When I was 7 or 8 years old, I was invited to a birthday party at this place that did inflatables and I remember it being a similar set up as the Rec Center birthday parties,” she said. “We spent time in a party room and then went out to jump on inflatables…you don’t get to jump in bounce houses every day, so it was super fun.”
Today, she enjoys helping create those same kinds of memories for local families. Whether a party includes the Frozen-themed bounce house, flag football, pool time or Nerf Battle Zone, the Rec Center offers four party packages to fit a variety of interests. Adelyn’s favorite is the All-Star Package, which includes time in the party room, activity gym and pool.
“The inflatable unicorn is for Nerf Battle Zone inflatable barriers in the Activity gym,” she said. “When we have Nerf parties, we will usually ask the lifeguards if any of them would like to dress up in the unicorn or dinosaur costume and run around to let the party kids shoot them with Nerf guns.”
Outside of work, Adelyn will be a senior in high school this fall and plans to study architecture while minoring in Spanish in college.
“I'm working really hard at becoming bilingual,” she said. “For me, it’s important because there are a lot of people in the United States that speak Spanish including some of my friends and understanding the language better would give me more opportunities to connect and communicate with more people. I also would love to travel to some Spanish speaking countries in the future."