Kidding around
BY Stacy Lee Kong
Being the parent of a young child doesn’t have to mean relegation to a life of Dora the Explorer. Fed up with commercially oriented family events, Toronto parents Lisa Kaplan and Rebecca Brown launched Bunch.
Named (at least in part) because it’s “a fun word to say,” Bunch hosts events that actually are fun for the whole family. “Parents are wanting to maintain their cultural relevance and involve their kids in that, too.”
They started last year with a now-regular Family Dance Party at Toronto’s trendy Drake Hotel, and in February, Brown and Kaplan organized a Family Salon where kids could bang on drums provided by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, create a model of their dream building with a local architecture firm or fingerpaint with folks from the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Long-term plans involve touring different cities, but the next Bunch event will be a May rock show at Toronto’s El Mocambo featuring the Bunnies—a band made up of kids aged 8-11.
