KIDZONE PARTY RENTALS LOCAL EVENT RENTAL COMPANY SPECIALIZES IN FUN
Writer / Renee Larr Photography Provided
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way we all live our day-to-day lives. Children’s birthday parties and other large events have been cancelled, and with this came a decline in business for KidZone Party Rentals. “We’re a large-event rental company,” says Nathan Suddarth, chief entertainment officer. “We provide several different activities, inflatables, water slides, arcade games and rock walls for corporate events, birthday parties and church events. That’s what we do.” Suddarth recently moved the business from Noblesville to Westfield. “We relocated to Westfield to have a larger location, and to be closer to U.S. 31 and State Road 32,” Suddarth says. “We moved in June of 2018. Then COVID came along and everything changed.” Business dropped dramatically for KidZone with cancellations of large events. “It’s been very difficult for us,” Suddarth says. “Our 2020 projected income was down 76% overall. We were affected tremendously by the lack of corporate events, school events and church events. However, our backyard party season was very busy with graduations, small weddings and birthday parties. Even those events didn’t change the
fact that we were down.” With the business relying on large events, Suddarth couldn’t do much to pivot. “We just tried to hang on,” Suddarth says. “I pivoted and started a few other businesses that aren’t related to party rentals. Essentially, we were shut down.” Suddarth is hopeful the spring weather will help business increase. “We’re starting to get some orders for spring and for summer, which is positive,” he says. “I started to see a trend that’s picking up, but I don’t think it’s going to be a year like we had in 2019.” Along with outdoor activities like water slides, KidZone offers inside activities as well. “If you think of a big school carnival, that’s what we do,” Suddarth says. “We have entertainers like balloon twisters, face painters, airbrush tattoo artists and caricature artists. Those can all be inside.” Cleaning has become a bigger priority than ever for the business. “We’re using a product called MonoFoil,” Suddarth says. “It’s a nanotechnology that continues to kill germs and viruses. It’s one of the very first EPA-approved COVID killers. It continues to kill on contact. We spray everything down with it and we feel all 18 / MARCH 2021
