Germaine Hillard of Mount Auburn holds her daughter Nadia, 10 months, while they perform with the Kidz Gig choir. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        About 13,000 people — mostly young children — attended Saturday morning's Kidz Gig, dancing in their seats and singing along to Christian music.

        Matt Praechter, a 17-year-old senior from Northwest High School, showed up with a team from First Baptist Church of Mount Healthy. Armed with 2,000 balloons, a tank of compressed air and big floppy hats to ward off the sun, they started working the Plaza long before the 10:30 a.m. event began. When it got too hot there, they moved into the concourse and stationed themselves above section 126.

        The kids followed, lining up two and three deep for the red, purple, yellow and white balloons Mr. Praechter and co-workers were twisting into oddly shaped hats.

"Psalty" and friends perform at Kidz Gig. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        “These are just gifts to make the kids smile,” Mr. Praechter said. “We can make lots of other things, but today we're only doing hats.”

        They must have produced a lot of smiles. The balloons were all gone by a little after 10 a.m. and the bottom tier of the stadium was a sea of balloon hats.

        Of course, you can't have a kids' event without animals. Enter Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden Cat Ambassador program director Elissa Knights and program founder Cathryn Hilker. They gave up their Saturday morning to be there.

Curt Van Valkenburgh of Milford dances with his son Matthew, 1. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        Both equipped with fanny packs full of treats — raw meat cubes — they brought Sahara the cheetah and Alexa the Anatolian Shepherd dog.

        Raised together as an experiment to prove that dogs can effectively guard sheep and goat herds, thereby eliminating the need to trap and kill cheetahs, the odd couple have become best friends.

        And the kids? Dead silence, maybe out of awe, maybe because Sahara was nervous and Ms. Hilker requested silence as the animals went through their paces on field.

        “Are we crazy, out like this on a Saturday morning?” Ms. Hilker asked. “No, this is the place to be in Cincinnati.”

Kidz Gig performers send their message. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        While everyone else in Paul Brown Stadium was there to raise voices in glory and praise, the Soldiers For Christ were there to maintain total silence.

        They're mimes, all from Avondale's New Friendship Baptist Church, where they practice twice a week, says coordinator Angela Wooley, and perform every chance they get.

        The seven-member all-male troupe, done up in black T-shirts, camouflage pants, white gloves and white-face mime paint, run from 7- to 19-years-old and tell the story of the Gospel without words.

Riaka Jackson, 22 of Lebanon prays with her brother, Nicholas Woodson, 6 ,while counselor Valerie Holland of Florence teaches him about accepting Jesus. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        Their first routine re-created Christ's journey with the cross to Calvary, trudging forward, faltering, trudging more.

        “You know, you really can see it and feel it when they do it like that,” said Rita Salter, one of the large crowd watching the group.

        “They'll do five more routines, four or five minutes each, before they go inside the stadium,” said Brenda Dubose, the group's other coordinator. “I'm so proud of them, the way they work so hard. It really shows.”

        For the 45 member-delegation — 12 adults, 33 kids — from Dayton's Tabernacle Baptist Church, Saturday was the day for the kids choir to shine. Next month, it's the adult choir's turn.

Kidz Gig choir performs. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        The kids, wearing yellow Kidz Gig T-shirts, were there to join the 3,000-voice children's choir. Rehearsed to the hilt and eager to sing, none were showing any signs of stage fright milling about the plaza before entering the stadium.

        It might be different for the adults. Their group — the Tabernacle Mass Choir — is off to New York next month to sing at the 55th anniversary concert of the Bethel AME Baptist Church on Long Island.

        “The trip is July 18 to the 23rd,” said member Gail Turner, “and the concert's only one day. So we're going to be doing a lot of sight seeing. But first, we just want to enjoy the mission today.”

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