A 12-year-old Tri-City student wanted a slime convention. So she made it happen

Children lined the walls of the TRAC Center in Pasco on Saturday waiting to get their hands into the gooey stuff piled high on tables.

The vendors, many of them children helped by their families, had names like Slimey Kings, Slimeyy Lavender and Arctic Slimes.

They came in all colors, with or without foam inside. Some with sparkly glitter.

And at the center of it all was Brook Boderick — the 12-year-old Kennewick student who had a vision to turn her hobby into a business and an event, “Slime in the 509.”

The combination of glue, borax and water caught Boderick’s attention about two years ago, Then last June, she got the idea to have a slime convention.

She knew it wasn’t out of her reach. Many of similar events across the country are organized by kids or teens.

Her parents were more skeptical.

“Originally, I talked to my parents and they said, ‘No.’ So then we made a deal that if I could raise $2,500 on my own from the sponsors then they would give me $2,500,” she said.

She was undeterred.

She created a sponsorship packet and began shopping it around to local businesses. It wasn’t long before she managed to raise the money.

She spent hours at night contacting slime sellers and doing other organizing to bring people to the event, all while being an active volleyball and basketball player, a Girl Scout and going to school at Bethlehem Lutheran.

By the time the doors opened, she had sold 400 tickets to people wanting to make, play with and trade their slippery creations.

The event attracted slime sellers from across the state, including a couple of local ones, Boderick’s own Mythical Slimes and the Pasco-based Slimey Kings.

Many of the businesses are run by teens and preteens.

“That’s the coolest part of the slime community is that all of these kids are learning business things from slime,” she said. “So they can turn their craft into a business.”

Her grandmother, Bonnie Cobb, said the girl’s entrepreneurial spirit comes from having two parents who also opened their own businesses. They own Mel’s Intercity Collision and Towing and Canyon Country Cycle.

Boderick credits them with helping to turn her vision into a reality.

“I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘Good job,’” she said. “We don’t really have anything like this in the Tri-Cities, like a kids event.”

She plans to bring back Slime in the 509 next year, likely in the summer.