WS Chronicle

By Busta Brown

Business of the Month is Flying Colors Adventure Park based in Winston-Salem.

DeVontae McMillan is a young African-American male born and raised in Winston-Salem. He said he always wanted to do something for kids in the city.

“I’m a singer, so I wanted to do something entertaining, yet inspire the kids as well.” DeVontae got a little shy, smiles and then says, “but my music was for the ladies, if you know what I mean.” He and his business partners laughed.

“When I decided to work with kids, I changed the type of music I use to do so that kids can listen to it,” McMillan said. And then his co-founder Anita Minor asked him to sing the theme song for their business. The young businessman began singing and snapping his fingers to the grove of the song, “Flying colors adventure, let’s go out and explore.” Minor and their events coordinator Latoya Johnsons joined in as his background singers, “fly, fly, fly,” and then I did my best parrot sound at the end of the song.

Mecaw the Parrot and his feathered friends are Flying Colors Adventure Park characters. McMillan explained how each one represents the strengths and weakness in most of our kids, “Knokz is the clumsy character, Neli is the motivator, whenever the crew is giving up, she’ll say come on let’s get this done. Then you have B.B is the juggler. He juggles balls, food, whatever, and he’s going to take dodge ball to another level. Then you have Venture, the smart one that creates all the gadgets, the wild one.”

After I met all of the Flying Colors Adventure Park characters, Anita Minor invited me to play with 50 real life characters: the kids in the neighborhood. They had the entire Adventure Park setup in a neighborhood in Winston-Salem. There was a huge jump house, a colorful parachute that covered at least 60 kids. The kids were playing several games with the parachute. One of the games taught the kids how to follow direction and learn their colors as well. “Whenever Anita calls out a color, the kids run to the other side of that color,” explained McMillan. The kids loved it!

One of my favorite games was piling tons of balls on top of the parachute and then we shook them off.  They also had face painting, and of course it was a long line with kids’ smiling faces and waiting to be painted. They had a big bouncy ball that the kids and I had to keep from touching the ground and a really cool Frisbee game as well.

You must go to The Chronicle’s YouTube channel at Winstonsalem Chronicle to see all of the fun games and hear the beautiful voices of children laughing and see the joy on their faces. It was truly a Flying Colors Adventure that all of the children in Winston-Salem should experience.

The three partners all grew up in Winston-Salem. “I have two kids, so Flying Colors Adventure Park means a lot to me because of the theme we have for children. We teach the kids morals, values, friendship and how to love everyone no matter their color. It’s not just fun, so when they leave, they have learned something,” said Latoya Johnson. With a huge smile on her face, Anita Minor shared how she always loved helping kids back when she was in high school. “I was the captain of the Carver Yellow Jackets the year we went 30-0, and back then I would give back to my community. I’ve always loved helping kids.”

The 26-year-old founder DeVontae McMillan said his heart is filled with joy every time he sees all of the kids enjoying his vision. “I just want to give kids today a better life and the type of fun I never had. Our goal is to own a building so we can expand. Also write a children’s book with all of the Flying Colors characters, and a cartoon.”

For bookings call (336) 301-9748 and visit http://Flyingcolorsadventurepark.com.

Companies interested in becoming a Business of the Month should apply at https://triadminoritybusinessexpo.com/. This feature is sponsored by the Winston-Salem Branch of the NAACP, Winston-Salem Urban League, Triad Minority Business Expo, Forsyth Technical Community College Small Business Center, Winston-Salem Black Chamber of Commerce and The Chronicle.