When: May 19, 2012 @ 10:00 AM to 03:00 PM

Where: Crown Center/Union Station/Washington Square Park area

Welcome Home Heroes Kansas City is a Veteran’s Appreciation Parade and Expo. All veterans and their families are welcome to participate; as well as the entire Kansas City metropolitan area. We will be specifically recognizing and appreciating the post 911 Iraq Veterans and their families.

The parade will start at 10:00; the expo will be held from 11:00-3:00 in Washington Square Park.

Additional information about the event and sponsorship opportunities can be found at http://www.welcomehomeheros-kc.org.

Bark 4 Life

When: May 19, 2012 @ 8:30AM

Where: Penn Valley Park

Families and their dogs come together for a few hours during the day and complete a one mile walk to honor the care giving qualities of their canine “Best Friends” and cancer survivors.

• Doggie games
• Top dog & dress up contests
• Team and community fundraising
• Music and Food
• Special dog guest demonstrations by groups such as: therapy, police or rescue dogs

Family and professional dogs bring the warm hearted feelings of wagging tails to the ACS Bark For Life to make the Bark a happy and meaningful community event to support the mission of the American Cancer Society. 

 For more information visit http://www.relayforlife.org/learn/relayforeveryone/barkforlife?gclid=CK6LiPbZgrACFbEBQAod8nzPEQ

Ben’s Ride

When: Saturday, May 19, 2012 @  9:00 PM

Where: 5351 Martway Street Mission, KS

Gather together with family and friends to celebrate the life of Ben Sullivan. The event, “Ben’s Ride,” is a bike ride through the greater Kansas City area aiming to raise awareness about depression and anixiety. All the proceeds from “Ben’s Ride”will go to the Ben Sullivan Memorial Fund at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation for more information visit http://www.sportkc.org/sportkc.aspx?pgID=866&event_id=734

Merriam Park & Rec – Turkey Creek Festival

Where: Antioch Park

When: SATURDAY, May 19, 2012 @ 10 AM to 5 PM

JCPRD’s Summertime Arts & Craft Show
The Summertime Arts & Craft Show is presented by the Johnson County Park & Recreation District in conjunction with the City of Merriam’s annual Turkey Creek Festival. The arts & craft show is one of the highlights of this fun filled day that attracts people from all over the Kansas City metropolitan area. Other festival events include a 5K run, pancake breakfast, children’s activities, food vendors, and live music. For more information visit http://jcprd.com/special_events/turkeycreekfest.cfm

• The first thing you need to know is your budget. Which details of your event will get a larger portion of your budget and ensure those details are attended to early?

• How many guests will be attending your event? Try to plan far enough in advance and give a clear way for your guests to RSVP.

• What venue best suits your budget and amount of guests while still serving the purpose of the event? Is this event outside or inside? If outside, what are your alternative plans if it rains? Will you have access to restrooms or will you need portable toilets? How many bathrooms you need to accommodate your guests is not only affected by the number of guests but if you will be serving food and/or alcohol.
• Visit this chart http://www.kcdropzone.com/numberofportables.html to see how many portable toilets you will need for your outdoor event.

• The next step revisits the question before, will there be food served? Will you cater for a larger event, or for a smaller event can you and a few friends cook yourself? Will you do buffet or seat down style dinner? For the larger events catering can provide invaluable assistance and be a huge stress reducer.

• What kind of activities will take place at the party i.e. casino night, entertainment, games, award ceremony? Plan out the times they will take place to ensure you have enough time to fit everything in and yet you don’t have a lot of lull time either (unless lull time is the intention).

• As the planner you need to know how to communicate with your vendors. Have some working knowledge about photography, catering, lighting, tents, florals and especially contracts. Always price your needs out to ensure you are getting the most for your budget. The more needs you can take care of under one roof the less calls you have to make to ensure all is running smoothly or to  make changes.

• Which type of entertainment will best fit your event? There are many different types of entertainment avenues from the traditional band or DJ to something a little more fun like a magician, juggler, hypnotist, fortune teller, etc. When hiring entertainment it is important to see a demo tape or video before signing a contract.

• Now the party is here, how do you keep your venue clean with continual flow of people? For smaller parties keep plenty of trash cans for guest to dispose of their own trash and keep a pile of trash bags at the bottom of the can to change the trash cans quickly. For larger parties with a bar and/or food area you could hire someone(s) to clean during the party to wipe tables, pick up dishes and change the trash overflow keeping the area(s) clean for your guests.

• Event planning can be overwhelming especially with the larger size events. It is easy to overlook small details. This is why it is important for the organizer to have a checklist and ensure before starting the process you know what needs to be done by the end of the process.

• Having talked about overwhelming details and checklists it is important to know that there is a high chance you could leave out a detail or something small could go wrong. No one will even notice anything was a miss if you don’t make a huge deal of the incident.

This is a very broad and basic guide to planning events. There can be many little and/or personal details to your event. Hopefully this will help get you started. Good luck and after all the planning, stress and hustle remember to stop and enjoy your event!

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