COMEC event full of kid-friendly fun

Treasure hunt benefits organization

Mid-South families enjoyed some swashbuckling fun at the sixth annual COMEC Treasure Hunt. The Commission on Missing and Exploited Children, the region’s Amber Alert coordinator, recently held its kid-friendly fundraiser at the Memphis Botanic Garden.

Little buccaneers were treated to performances by various local groups and entertainers including the Mid-South Buccaneers, Emma Webb, Studio B Dance, Dressed as a pirate, Joe Thomas of Collierville builds a pirate ship at COMEC’s Treasure Hunt activity.

Collierville Arts Academy and Desert Rose Dance Company. Children posed with look-alike characters from In Character Productions and had their faces painted by Party with Pickles, the party artist.

There was a kids’ fun fair with games, a showcase of family-friendly businesses in the Pirates’ Marketplace, a workshop provided by Home Depot, sky-high thrills from Bungeezoom, and a giant inflatable slide and obstacle course.

Award-winning producer and host Michelle Robinson returned to emcee the event.

The COMEC Treasure Hunt was sponsored by the Kiwanis Clubs of Memphis and Brunner Printing.

COMEC is a nonprofit missing-children’s organization. In addition to coordinating the region’s Amber Alerts and searching for missing children and runaways, COMEC provides child ID cards, fingerprinting kits, inhome drug testing kits and counseling for troubled children and teens. COMEC also offers seminars to schools, parent groups and Kyle Silvestro of Collierville walks the plank while Robert Allsup, captain of the MidSouth Buccaneers, watches. community organizations on child safety, bullying, protecting children and teens from the dangers of Internet predators, truancy and drug and alcohol use.

For more information call 901-405-8441 or check out comec.org. Tran Bui is advisory board member for COMEC.

Bartlett/Cordova/Millington:

Collierville/Germantown:

SELENA SILVESTRO Tril Patton of Cordova, Eddie and Evan Robinson of Cordova, and Isabel Brown of Olive Branch enjoy the pirate party at the Treasure Hunt to benefit COMEC.

PHOTOS BY SELENA SILVESTRO Tril Patton of Cordova walks the plank as her dad, Jeremiah Patton, and Robert Allsup of Bartlett look on at the COMEC Treasure Hunt.