The Event Team Experience
During the interview process, Pause asks the question, “What’s the difference between an event and an experience?” It’s an important question for us because it’s the root of how we design each event we host and helps candidates understand our culture and what we are looking for.
We want parents, kids and volunteers to walk in and feel our extravagant welcome. We want to know the names of everyone attending and intentionally use them to make people feel special, welcomed and included. We want kids to experience our events by using all of their senses to explore and discover the different activities curated just for them. Since our programming year started on July 1, 2023 Pause has hosted 7 Parent’s Day/Night Out Events, Thrive Night Events and Family Fun events.
Our Pause Event Team makes these events come to life from start to finish. We are thrilled to showcase our Butler Co. Family Event Team this month as a part of our “meet the team” segment! Let’s meet the masterminds of the event team!
Amanda Nolasco, Butler County Event Coordinator
Amanda’s team meets with the Content Coordinator, Kaylann Yankie, to officially handover content when the ideas are complete. This begins the prepping phase of the event. Amanda oversees the ordering and preparation of all event activities. For Parent’s Day/Night Out this could be 48 activities or for a Family Fun event, like the annual Pause Holiday Shoppe, this could be up to 40 activities! During the week of the event, after materials have been prepared, it’s time to set up the space. Amanda oversees setting up 17 rooms for our kids to enjoy - from the Cafe to our different sensory rooms, the event team does it all!
After all that preparation, it’s time for kiddos to come to the event! Amanda oversees the Operations part of the event ensuring families are communicated with, name tags are made, allergies are identified and volunteers have everything they need to be successful! When the fun has been had, and the event concludes, the event team cleans the space, resets the rooms and stores away reusable activities. And then they rinse and repeat for the next time!
Nicole Zeigler, Event Administrator
Amanda can’t do it alone! Her partner in crime, Nicole, helps assist with the preparation of events. She takes charge of ALL the prepping - the cutting, the gluing and sample making of the different activities. Because we know that all of our kids have different abilities and some prefer more fine motor activities while others prefer more gross motor activities, there are different accommodations made to each of the different activities to allow all children to participate!
Nicole acts as Amanda’s “wing-woman” at the events and creates that experience for families as they walk in our space and while their kids are in our care. She also oversees the upkeep of our physical environment including our resource room and storage spaces.
Volunteers & Interns
The event team is lucky to have dedicated interns and volunteers to assist with preparation and execution of our events. Emily Hall and Sydney Best, Americorp volunteers, assist Amanda and Nicole with all the tasks to set the events up for success! All in all, it takes approximately 348 hours to prepare the activities and another 110 hours to set up the rooms and the space for events like the Holiday Shoppe, so we are super thankful for the volunteers who show up to help us prepare.
This Pause Event team is SPECIAL. They have hearts of gold and pour so much love and kindness into every detail of these events to make them perfectly crafted for our kids and families. Amanda and Nicole (Nimanda as we like to call them) - we are SO lucky to have you! Thank you for loving our families so well and for taking an event and making it an experience families and kids can look forward to.
This is CAN DO. This is COMMUNITY. This is YOUR SUPPORT.
