"Nothing is more important than the lives of our children," announced Mayor John Street as he formally opened the ceremonies. Hosted by the mayor and child advocacy groups throughout the city, the event saw over 10,000 attend the afternoon and free early evening event. They were treated to games, entertainment, dance groups, and to a fun time with Comedian Bill Cosby in the main arena. 

Every inch around the Spectrum was staffed with free food and drink tables, and presentations from every agency in the city and state and local business aimed at providing information to better the quality of life for families and children.

The mayor told the audience of VIPS in attendance at one of the functions within the hall, "I have proclaimed '2000 The Year of the Child' in order to highlight my commitment to the city's children and to improve the services that impact on their lives."

He summed, up for the attendees, the accomplishments made in the short year in that direction. These included reorganizing the government to have a single point of supervision for all social services agencies, creating a Children's Commission, establishing an Office of Child Care, producing a first-ever Children's budget in partnership with Philadelphia Safe and Sound, and establishing a report to evaluate all funded children's programs and the establishment of comprehensive standards for after school programs.

"In partnership," he added, "with the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the William Penn Foundation, each year of my term as mayor will also be considered a Year of the Child, designed to build on earlier successes."

The mayor is asking the Children's Commission to conduct a summit on children by the end of April. He would like the report to cover every school program, plan how to raise an additional $100 million in new revenue resources for city sponsored and supported children's programs, recommend how to reduce youth violence, identify the need for a new detention center to replace the youth study center.