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local Tuesday 4 april 2023
Imelda Geerman-Willems: 18 years of bringing joy to children

(Oranjestad)—For 18 long
years now, Imelda Geer- This year, she organized the
man-Willems have brought show called “Encanto and
joy to the children of Aru- Friends.” She explained that
ba with her puppets, and after she saw the movie En-
in recent years, with her canto, she was inspired to
magnificent puppet shows. make this show, along with
In an interview with our re- the beloved character
porter, Imelda shares her Sonic. After 4 full houses, EZ
journey that has led her into Party Solutions, along with
the world of child entertain- dance group Kids & Youth
ment and puppetry. in Action, received an invi-
tation to perform in Cura-
Imelda has been a govern- cao.
ment worker for 30 years. “This was my dream come
She told our reporter that true, thanks to the EZ crew,
she comes from a family my family—and last but not
of 8 children; 5 girls, 3 boys. least, my promoter, Corine.
She is the youngest of the We were able to repre-
bunch. She’s been married sent Aruba and have left a
to Patrick Geerman for 22 beautiful mark. In Curacao,
years and they have one we were able to sell out the
teenage son who is now 19 show and perform for 1500
years old. people in the audience.
From the moment the first
Imelda worked at Party An- (Uncle George and Aunt show, with their theme be- song played, you could
imals for 8 and a half years, “When I saw materials start Esmee). Imelda explained ing Sesame Street. Imelda hear the children’s excite-
but after her mother passed to come in the house, he that at that time, she had and her husband imme- ment. It really warmed our
away, she decided to stop surprised me with a num- never visited Disney Land, diately offered to provide hearts and made us less
working at children’s par- ber from the Chamber of but was really hoping to go costumes for the show— nervous. It was a beautiful
ties. “My mother’s passing Commerce with the name one day. This gave her the which ultimately won for experience. It does take a
left a hole in my heart. Not ‘EZ party solutions’ on it. It’s idea to give children that best show that year. lot of work, but it’s always
long after that, I lost my fa- been 18 years since that may not have the luxury to worth it for the kids. A big
ther as well. It was a really surprise, and it was one go to Disney Land, to enjoy After working on two shows thanks goes to Miss Debra
rough time,” she expressed. of the best things that has the same type of charac- with Tio George and Tan- for joining the show,” she
happened to me. I was ters that you see there. chi Esmee, Imelda shared expressed.
A couple months after quit- able to go back to mak- that she did something be-
ting Party Animals, she start- ing children happy,” she The first costume that yond her comfort zone: she For what’s in store this year,
ed to miss the joy of making shared. Imelda got was a Hello Kitty produced her own show Imelda assures that there is
children happy. After talk- costume for a friend’s par- named “Masha and the a great show coming soon,
ing to her husband about The first show from EZ Par- ty. After that, they met with Bear.” This show sold out 6 but that she couldn’t give
how she felt, he started to ty Solutions included Tio a group preparing their set times over before it even away too much yet.
prepare a surprise for her. George and Tanchi Esmee for the Carnaval Queen premiered.
Lastly, Imelda extends her
gratitude to everyone that
has helped her dreams
of bringing joy to children
come true. “Once again, I
want to thank God for giv-
ing me the energy and the
motivation to do what I do,
to my family for their sup-
port and patience, and to
my crew who has always
gone all out to make things
happen.”q