About KidsOutAndAbout.com

I'm Debra Ross, and I publish KidsOutAndAbout.com. I also own a computer consulting company (Axton Enterprises), and am the mom of Madison and Ella. That's us in the photos on this page. (The photo to the right was taken at Brown's Berry Patch by local photographer Honey DeLapa of DeLapa Photography. Honey has written several articles for this web site about how to take great family photographs--definitely worth checking out.)

In early 2001, when Madison was one-and-a-half and I was just about to have Ella, I realized how helpful it would be if there were some web site that gathered all of this information in one place. So on my maternity leave, I created KidsOutAndAbout.com, with the help of several great programmers, a graphic designer, and some volunteers who helped me gather information. Over the course of time, as word about the site spread, others in the greater Rochester community began to donate articles, information, resources, and suggestions. As of Fall 2006, there are between 45,000 and 70,000 individual user sessions per month, and over 6000 local parents receive our free email newsletter every Friday morning.

Why is it free?

People have been amazed when we tell them that not only is the KidsOutAndAbout web service free for parents and caregivers, but also that we're not charging any organization (for-profit or nonprofit) any fees for listing their events on the site. There are several reasons for this. First, we wanted to remain objective in our listing, and did not want to feel pressured exclude our sponsors' competitors. Second, many of the activities listed here are sponsored by nonprofit organizations who could not otherwise afford to pay for the service. Our goal is to list all of the available activities we can find, which means we did no want to exclude any organization based on its ability to pay.

Which parts of the web site are most used?

Folks come to us most frequently through web searches or through word of mouth. (Our most searched-for page is our Main Fall Page; interestingly, usage spikes about 25% in October...maybe because everyone is anxious to get "out and about" with their kids before the snow flies. Parents usually find us initially because they're looking for places to go in Rochester with their kids. They then become active users when they sign up for our email list to receive the Rochester Family Calendar right in their In-Box every Friday morning. Then, they find out about our articles and reviews and lists of resources and they become regular users. Our web statistics show that parents usually access KidsOutAndAbout.com between 5 and 7 times per month.

Help us provide this community resource!

KidsOutAndbout.com is a community resource that requires constant maintenance if we're to be absolutely current and comprehensive. You can help us by logging the events for the organizations you're part of, or by letting us know about them:

• Let us know about events and organizations that we haven't yet listed on the site! Click here to give us the information.



• Let us know if you know of any restaurants, playgrounds, places to go, activities, or home schooling resources, etc. that should be added to these pages.

Almost all of our growth has been due to word of mouth, so please tell your friends and colleagues about KidsOutAndAbout.com. Thank you very much, and we hope you enjoy using our web site.