Going to the children

Lolita Harper

They may not be old enough to possess a platinum credit card but

the children of Orange County are taking over South Coast Plaza this

week.

The shopping venue, famous worldwide for its wide variety of

high-end stores and big name retailers, has teamed with Childrens

Hospital of Orange County to present the monthlong Festival of

Children, which kicks off today.

Sports experts, safety officials, jovial comedians, health care

professionals, fairy princesses, educators, cartoon characters and

others will scatter throughout the mall to offer a slue of

children-related services, said Debra Gunn-Downing, spokeswoman for

South Coast Plaza.

The festival was the brainchild of Sandy Segerstrom Daniels --

niece of South Coast Plaza owner and real estate mogul Henry

Segerstrom -- who observed that various charitable Orange County

organizations were all competing for donations. She proposed to bring

all the philanthropic organizations together and let them build

valuable alliances among the large assortment of specialties, ranging

from child safety to the arts.

One call to Jan Lansing, the marketing director for Childrens

Hospital of Orange County, and the Festival of Children was born,

offering a host of daily workshops, activities, performances and

demonstrations from more than 50 organizations.

Each week of the festival will be dedicated to specific topics,

such as health, wellness and safety information, sports and

activities, education and literacy and arts and entertainment. The

hospital will also display the CHOC Mobile Safety House, which

provides hands-on advice on injury prevention.

Daniels said the rush of organizations to participate was

overwhelming. And when she thought they had every organization in the

county, even more signed on, Daniels said.

The festival even garnered the endorsement of the Orange County

Board of Supervisors, which declared September Child Awareness month

in an effort to promote the event.