Kids Put Convention Day Care to the Test

The usually hushed conference rooms at the Anaheim Marriott hotel were filled with cribs, diapers and the din of children Saturday in a test run of a proposed city program to provide day care for visiting conventioneers.

The program, run by the city’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, is part of the city’s attempt to lure more conventions to Anaheim by offering visitors safe and convenient child care. The pilot program this weekend provided day care for families attending the annual conference of the American Council on Adoptable Children.

If successful, the city will propose the idea to the Anaheim Visitor and Convention Bureau, and it could become a staple of conferences at some of Anaheim’s largest hotels.

“People want to take children to conventions, but they want time away from them too,” said Pam Strain, a city recreation services specialist overseeing the program. “That’s where something like this comes in.”

For the adoption convention, which ends today, the city is providing day care for 190 children--most of whom are from 3 months to 12 years old--for $90 per child. The program, an extension of the Adventure Day camp program offered at nine city parks, is running the entire four days of the convention and is being operated by city employees and outside workers.

The city expects to make a profit of about $5,200 from the program. City officials believe that if the program is expanded and made a regular service, it will lure top conventions that pump money into city coffers, more than offsetting the expense of paying city workers.

Strain said the American Council on Adoptable Children first contacted the city in March about providing day care.

By hiring 15 extra part-time workers to supplement more than 40 parks employees, the city realized it could cater to the request and have a chance at starting a trend, she said. No other city offers child care, although some recommend baby-sitting services for visitors, according to the International Assns. of Convention and Visitor Bureaus.

As part of the program, children over 5 were treated to picnics in nearby parks and trips to Wild Rivers water park in Irvine and, of course, Disneyland.

But best of all, it allows parents to attend convention workshops without worrying about their children, parents said.

“Traveling with children is tough,” said Kathy Burke Moore, a convention delegate from Minneapolis. “It’s such a relief to see them safe playing with other kids. Usually when we’re in a hotel, my daughter goes right to the door after a half hour and says, ‘Go, go.’ ”

When children are not seeing the sights, they stay in conference rooms that have been turned into playpens complete with toys, games and arts and crafts.

By all indications, it was a screaming success.

Toddlers made their presence well known in a conference room crowded with a dozen cribs provided by the hotel. Workers were kept busy, darting between infants needing fresh diapers, juice or a variety of toys.

Despite the work, staff members were smitten.

“I want to take him home,” said worker Kathy Jelin, cradling a baby.

Sandra Harvey, another worker, said youngsters felt right at home.

“One boy called it a preschool,” Harvey said. “That’s how comfortable he was.”

This kind of pandemonium is new for the hotel, said Debra Krebs, Marriott’s convention services manager.

“It’s a great idea,” she said. “The kids have stolen our hearts.”

Krebs said many conventions involve men and women who don’t bring their families. But this week’s convention, involving about 1,300 parents and professionals involved in adopting children, is geared toward family life.

“There is a trend for this sort of thing,” Strain said. “But there’s no real program to get day care off the ground at conventions.”

Many delegates of the convention themselves have adopted children, some of whom need special attention because of disabilities, said Joe Kroll, executive director of the North American Council on Adoptable Children, based in St. Paul, Minn. He said the number of children in day care during the convention had doubled.