The suburbs have them, and now the city of Detroit has their first indoor playground for children.
Danielle North is the mom behind Kidz Kingdom, located in the Rosedale Park neighborhood in northwest Detroit.
She is a Detroit Public Schools graduate, first-generation college graduate and a native Detroiter.
Along with her new business, Danielle leads her own K-12 consulting firm to promote city-wide education reform. She previously served as deputy director of the Office of Charter Schools at Detroit Public Schools and has always been passionate about kids and education.
"As a mom, you're always looking for the best educational and recreational opportunities for your kids and unfortunately in Detroit we're at a bit of a disadvantage in both of those areas," says Danielle.
She hopes that she is building a better city for children and families in Detroit.
"If we continue to only have dollar stores and beauty supplies in all of our plazas that's how our community will look, but I want to have something different and this is only the first location," says Danielle."We're hoping for multiple locations across the city that will help transform what our city looks like for our children and for families."
One day, after promising her son they would go to an indoor playground, Danielle realized that they were going to have to drive quite a distance because there were no indoor playgrounds in the entire city. That's what led to her and her husband using their savings to open the doors to Kidz Kingdom.
Danielle's son, Eugene Jr., is the co-founder and young man behind the name of her business.
"This place is like a kingdom for kids where everyone can make their dreams come true," says Eugene Jr.
Along with drop-in play, Kidz Kingdom also offers party packages and memberships as well as a summer camp where kids will learn Spanish, how to read music, and much more while doing team building exercises to gain different skills.
Kidz Kingdom opened in May and will have their official ribbon cutting on July 6.
For more information, you can visit the Kidz Kingdom website.
