Today we’d like to introduce you to Oriana Escalona.
Oriana, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Kids Island is a family-owned and operated business. We are Venezuelan immigrants who were forced to leave our country years ago due to the lack of quality of life, security, and opportunities.
My brother and his wife migrated to Panama seven years ago, while my mom, boyfriend, and I migrated to the United States almost six years ago. Kids Island was inspired by my three-year-old niece, my sister-in-law and I love shopping as many women do, on the other hand, our partners dislike the idea of walking around for hours looking for the perfect shoes and my niece gets bored in the process. But we all appreciate family time and thought, what if there was a way to have our cake and eat it too? And that’s where Kids Island came from.
Our playground is for all those parents who understand that children have a right to play, have fun and express themselves, who support their development through play, and for those who struggle with keeping their children entertained while at the mall so they have a healthy distraction during or after parents shop.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, I firmly believe that no path to success is easy. We started this project on January 2022 and we had an expected opening date of July 2022 although we researched the necessary steps, were educated and prepared ourselves for the road everything went wrong. We had to make some tough decisions like increasing our investment budget, we had to quit our jobs to be able to work full time on this project, overseeing that everything we needed went right and we had to trust the process and accept that we were not going to make it by our initial opening date. Every time we thought that we were going to make it a new challenge came up, especially with permits. But we believed in our business and decided to push forward.
This project took eleven months to be accomplished, and many arguments and disagreements with my business partners, happy moments, frustration, feeling defeated, and almost quitting; but this taught us a lot and we will definitely apply everything we learn in the future.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We all have different backgrounds, accountants, teachers, sales representatives, and customer service.
Having a team with different professions and skills has been helpful because each person has something different to offer and we all complement each other with our diverse experiences and knowledge.
What’s next?
We want to see a Kids Island playground in each and every mall or outlet in the United States and even in each airport, to be a happy place and escape for kids but also a help and way to provide peace of mind to parents.
For them to know that while they rest, wait, or shop their kids would also be doing something they like. For parents to be free of shame for needing a minute for themselves, and to free them from the guilt we as parents feel sometimes for having to make our kids move around places without giving a bit of what they like need, and enjoy.
I’m looking forward to growing, and for people to know that we exist!
Pricing:
- 30 minutes playtime $10
- 1-hour playtime $15
- All-day playtime $20
- Educational books in Spanish from $6-22
- Memberships from $30-114 and children parties from $299
Contact Info:
- Website: kidsislandllc.square.site
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidsisland.us/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Kids-Island/100084851557300/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kidsisland.us
