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Occupy Wall Street Wants You To Bring Your Kids To Zuccotti Park For A Sleepover Tomorrow

Ben Yakas

Published Oct 20, 2011

Modified Oct 20, 2011

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Ben Yakas

Published Oct 20, 2011

Modified Oct 20, 2011

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Occupy Wall Street protesters have been hard at work trying to capture the hearts and minds of the middle class, Middle America, and mid-level talk show hosts. But now it seems they're turning their attentions toward a block with slightly less voting power: children. Tomorrow, there will be a Family Sleepover at Zuccotti Park for the sake of "our children’s futures."

The event, hosted by Parents For Occupy Wall Street, will take place from 4 p.m., Friday until 11 a.m. the
following Saturday morning. It was supposed to happen last Friday, except a little stand-off with the NYPD and a last minute cleaning cram got in the way. Below, check out the announcement in full:

Liberty Square, NY — A second try.

The parent founded and run group, “Parents for Occupy Wall Street,” will be
hosting a Family Sleepover, from 4 PM, Friday, October 21st until 11 AM the
following Saturday morning—a second try after being forced to cancel their
planned sleepover last weekend because of a threatened eviction. With the
Family Sleepover rescheduled for this weekend, parents and families in the
greater New York City area are excited to demonstrate their support for this
growing movement creating real change for our children’s futures.

Occupy Wall Street is a place for everyone, including families. At the
Family Sleepover, families and children will find arts and crafts, a
children’s music sing along, a pizza party, and a bed time story. With the
help of various teacher and parent groups, such as the “School for the 99%,”
and the Occupy Wall Street Outreach team, the Family Sleepover will have a
sectioned off Child and Family Only area at Liberty Plaza.

Safety is the first measure on everyone’s mind. Security and strict
involvement rules will be taken at the event including a check in and check
out system with parent’s ID with a Parents for Occupy Wall Street security
person and an hourly headcount. All parents will be required to wear an
identifying T-shirt while working shifts around the hour. The police are
already aware of the group and will be checked in with hourly on the group’s
size and location.

The group’s goal is to raise awareness of the diversity of people supporting
the movement. In the press, there is an assumption that the only people
supporting the movement are solely homeless or unemployed when that couldn’t
be further from the truth. With even a short visit to Liberty Plaza, you
will see all walks of life supporting the movement, including middle class
working families.

With the Family Sleepover, Parents for Occupy Wall Street are Occupying to
speak up for the ones without a voice and make real change, change for their
children’s futures.

This isn't the first attempt at getting kids involved with OWS activities: author Daniel Handler, better known as children's writer Lemony Snicket, posted 13 observations on OWS for kids from his characters witty voice, such as: "People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices."

One parent went around Zuccotti asking protesters to explain OWS to their six-year-old daughter, and came out with this video:

And finally, Washington Post points out that the ahead-of-its-time subversive MTV2 show Wonder Showzen beat OWS to the punch half a decade ago, when it had their intrepid kid reporter go down to Wall Street and ask adorably, "Who did you exploit today?"

Get More: TV Shows, Full Episode Video, Reality TV Shows

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Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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