Alexandria Arendt thanked Clarendon Hills Saturday for its support of the Clarendon Hills Princess entertainment company she started in 2018 by hosting a meet-and-greet with three princesses outside Village Hall.
Arendt, a Hinsdale Central graduate, plans to end operation of her business Aug. 1, as she is preparing to begin college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
“We had a really great turnout, a line of about 40 families,” Arendt said Monday. “I really appreciate the support I’ve had. This was a way to thank people for that and to let them know we’re ending Aug. 1.”
Arendt didn’t fill the role of a princess for the meet-and-greet, but rather organized and coordinated visits for kids with others who took on the characters of Snow White, Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” and Belle from “Beauty and the Beast.”
Arendt said her business has prided itself in being Clarendon Hills’ and Hinsdale’s premier princess character company.
“Our performers are age accurate to the characters they are portraying, and trained to be as believable and entertaining as possible,” she said, adding that the princesses were hired for children’s birthday parties, family events and sometimes play dates.
Arendt said she thoroughly enjoyed operating her Clarendon Hills Princess business, although it took a bit longer to get off the ground than she expected.
“I thought it would be more of an instant hit,” she said. “It did take a little while, but it caught on very well.”
As was the case with many businesses, the coronavirus pandemic put the brakes on for Arendt’s operation.
“We were dormant March through June of last year,” she said. “We did princess care packages in April, where we dropped off things from different princesses — different activities and things for kids to do.”
With her business getting ready to shut down, Arendt said she will miss her time with the performers.
“It’s been classmates and friends,” she said.
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