Community Event Has Long-Term Positive Effects

This past weekend, Staunton, Virginia, the home of Pufferbellies Toys and Books, held its third annual Kids’ Night Out. Sponsored by the local downtown development association, the event featured children’s activities in shops and on sidewalks community-wide.

“I think it’s just fantastic because it brings lots of families downtown for an evening of fun,” said Pufferbellies’ Susan Blanton, who opened the store in 2006 with her daughter, Erin.

Kids Night Out kicked off the downtown’s extended-hours program for the year. A number of stores, including Pufferbellies, will stay open later on Friday nights from now through the holidays. From August through October, the downtown area will feature street entertainment and other events aimed at drawing out-of-town visitors to Staunton, which was dubbed one of the “20 Best Small Towns in America” by Smithsonian Magazine.

This past weekend’s event drew a crowd of about 100 kids, along with their parents, aunts, and uncles, to Pufferbellies. “Turnout was great for Kids Night Out,” said Blanton, “and sales for the weekend were fantastic!”

Pufferbellies typically organizes a science or art activity for Kids’ Night Out. This year, it featured “Fizz Painting,” a simple craft that Blanton said is always “crazy fun.”  (Fizz Painting is done with a layer of baking soda and a watercolor solution made with white vinegar, liquid watercolor and a drop of dish detergent. When it hits the baking soda, the paint fizzes and the colors mix.)

The store was packed from 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., said Blanton, adding, “Sales were good, but the real value, I think, is that lots of people who are not regular shoppers here visited the store and picked up an item or two.” The event also provided Pufferbellies with an opportunity to build its e-mail list and gain reward program members.

“I think this really helps enlarge our customer base and has long-term positive effects,” Blanton said.

In addition to its Friday night activities, Pufferbellies features a regular program of literary events and crafts for kids. “Events are a pretty big part of what we do,” said Blanton, who is a former teacher, librarian, and professional storyteller. The store has three standing weekly activities: PufferBabies, a playgroup/rhyme time for lap babies and crawlers; Storytime, geared mostly toward toddlers and preschoolers; and Crafternoon, an open-ended arts and craft session.

Some of Pufferbellies’ warehouse and storage space was recently converted into a new art room, and the store will be hosting its first Art Club this summer. The club will be run by two staff members who have Fine Arts degrees from Staunton’s Mary Baldwin College.

The store also recently hosted its first “Crafter After Hours,” a craft event for adults that met with great success.