Kansas Citian went from ex-con to entrepreneur. Her business? Kids’ birthday parties
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Bouncing back
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Kansas Citian went from ex-con to entrepreneur. Her business? Kids’ birthday parties
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Diamond Fuse is creating a dream day for a baby’s first birthday party.
She’s spending the afternoon assembling the tools of her trade — soft playgrounds and bounce houses. She sterilizes the toys. She makes sure all is in order for the horde of children and parents about to descend on a midtown party venue.
It’s hard to believe this 32-year-old businesswoman, who has found popularity and success in the Kansas City metro as the owner of Bizzy Babies party rentals, was once upon a time a pistol-packing drug dealer, prone to high-speed car chases with law enforcement, a fugitive on the run for narcotics and weapons charges.
But her horrific past is actually the key to her calling to bring joy to children. She understands the need to build early happy memories before the harsh realities of life can set in.
“My birthdays used to be horrible. I used to dread birthdays,” says Fuse, a California native who moved to Kansas City, Kansas, with her family as a preteen. “It wasn’t until recently I started thinking of my birthday as a joyous day where I am just happy to be alive.”
She remembers all too well when childhood stopped and dark truths set in.
‘My family’s dark secret’
That sudden change came when she was 13, when her mother, Cecillia Green, revealed that Diamond was the product of rape. Her mother had been 13. Her father was 19.
Fuse remembers him like a best friend in her early years.
“I would literally move down to California every summer to stay with him. I didn’t believe her,” says Fuse.
When she confronted him with the accusation, the dynamics of the father-daughter relationship instantly deteriorated.
“When I asked him about it, he didn’t say anything,” she says. “He hung up in my face. After that, I felt like I was the black sheep. Like the way they say every family has a secret, I felt like I was my family’s dark secret.”
Her life fell apart.
“I would just cry and isolate myself. I was craving attention. Going through trauma without knowing I was going through trauma,” says Fuse. She began to act out. “Then I got into a secret relationship with a 23-year-old man when I was 16.”
Seeing the road her daughter was on, Green allowed her to move back to Sacramento, California, to stay with an aunt for her senior year of high school. Her mother brought her back to KCK after graduation in 2006, leading to a series of events that would shape the next decade of her daughter’s life.
“I graduated and came back to Kansas with my mom and that’s when I met the man who would become my boyfriend and introduced me into selling drugs. He would always spend money on me or take me shopping. It made me feel special because he was like, I am worth it, and I deserve it. And after that we were like Bonnie and Clyde, just doing hella stupid stuff.”
Green, meanwhile, married James Christopher III, a man who would become the primary male influence in a teenage Fuse’s life. While learning the ropes in the drug game, she was shocked to learn her mother and Christopher were already deeply entrenched in the narcotics trade.
“I never knew,” Fuse says. “When we needed anything, my step-daddy would always have it, or we would put in the request to our mom and she would tell him. I never thought about it until we started (dealing drugs). Then we found out pretty much he was the plug (drug wholesaler).”
With the criminal life now normalized by her only two role models, Fuse dove in head first, dealing in crack cocaine and ecstasy pills. She enjoyed a fruitful rookie season, but things soon came to a head.
“I got my first felony when I was 19 years old. Felony drug possession with intent to sell,” she says. “I didn’t understand what it meant to be a felon back then. As I was dealing with the courts, my boyfriend ended up being sentenced to 13 years for a robbery where an individual was killed.”
Fugitive from the law
Fuse did not understand the long-term implications of a felony record.
“So I plead out and I am out on probation. It wasn’t until then I realized like I couldn’t get any kind of good job. I can’t live places, I can’t get a new car at a car lot. I just felt alone and going through a depression,” she says.
Dealing with the strains of being alone once again and still not making the right decisions, Fuse was in direct conflict with the strict terms of her agreement for freedom.
“While I am on this three-year probation, I was still kicking it with gang members and drug dealers. Just partying and kicking it like everything was normal. I wasn’t able to comply with probation. I ended up getting a weapons charge in another county after the cops searched my car and found my gun.
“I bailed out and I knew it was only a matter of time before my parole officer would be told. I ended up flipping out on the drug counselor, then I ended up going on the run as a fugitive to avoid going to prison.”
On the move for the next few years evading law enforcement, Fuse found herself back in the swing of selling drugs. Her picture appeared on the news as a criminal. She was in a new abusive relationship with another drug dealer.
The future looked bleak, until one fateful trip that found her getting advice from a family member that would change her life.
“I ended up going to Texas and seeing my auntie that lives down there. She is a neurodiagnostic technician. She showed me I could have more than what I was aiming for. That was a changing point for me.
“I was like, I keep investing into love instead of investing into me. So I went back to Kansas to face everything,“ says Fuse. She fully expected to return home and spend the next few years in a penitentiary.
In a surprising turn of events, in 2011 Fuse’s stepfather hired a high-priced lawyer who got the gun charge thrown out. She could plead her charges down to a 90-day sentence, followed by unsupervised probation.
Changing her life
Now in a stable place for the first time in years, Fuse found it was time to try to settle down and turn her back on the life of crime that caused her almost a decade of hardship. She knew it was the right decision after her stepfather, her source or support through much of her life, was shot and killed in a robbery during a drug deal.
She managed to pull the pieces together, in what she would call her first healthy relationship. She had her first two children in the next few years (she has three now).
Getting her life back on the straight and narrow would not be an easy task with the constant temptation of easy money versus the menial jobs available for a felon seeking employment.
Eventually she and her partner agreed it would make more sense for her to be a stay-at-home mother while he worked, a choice the independent and self-sufficient Fuse was not happy to make.
“It was hard because I would try to work these jobs and make money, but then you know you can make a week’s worth of pay in 30 minutes. But I quit hustling because I was a mom. I actually got to be a stay-at-home mom. But I didn’t like having someone that I had to depend on,” says Fuse.
She found herself looking into entrepreneurship to not only bring in her own income but also to make her own schedule and have time to be a mother. After a series of failed ideas, she finally decided to try to provide services she as a mother would love.
She already had rights to the name Bizzy Babies from a past endeavor. Then she came across a soft playground and bounce house rental service in the Kansas City metro for amazing playground setups. She wanted to help parents ease the frustrations of putting on events for children.
“As a mother I know that the process is so stressful,” she says. “So you just have to show up with the kid. Everything is taken care of. I started working on my website (bizzybabies.com). I had some money saved and said, I am about to invest in myself.”
In 2020 Fuse organized her first party for the daughter of Briana Murry, owner of Bright Skies Child Care. She did it for free to get her name out there and show what she had to offer.
“She was the first person to give me a shot; I fell in love with her daughter’s photos on Instagram. I asked if she was interested in a free setup and in return she would shout me out on social media. To my surprise she had an amazing child care center that allowed me to receive photos and feedback from a cluster of parents and kids,” says Fuse.
“It was like it blew up overnight. I started getting calls about people wanting to book us on the weekend. Then I started to do the math and I am like, I can make in a weekend what I am making through the week at a normal job.”
With packages ranging from $200 to $400, Fuse’s business has taken off as an affordable alternative to traditional franchise event spaces.
And with life going great and thriving, Fuse bought her first house, purchased a new car, and enjoyed several trips in and outside the country within the last few months. She says she is still mindful to save and budget in order to secure the financial future of the growing business.
‘An extravagant party’
One mother who was looking to put on the most spectacular first birthday for her daughter is 26-year-old makeup artist Dalesa Blockmon. With the help of Fuse, along with her mother and sister who own MKT event planning, she made baby Braelyn’s big day an over-the-top extravaganza.
“I never thought I would be a mom. I thought I would just be the auntie with no kids,” says Blockmon. “This is my only first child, so I needed it to be extra. It was a lot and a different experience.”
She had an area in the midtown venue filled with a bounce house, ball pit, baby roller coaster and bikes. Her mom and sister decorated the venue to the max with countless balloons as well as enlarged photos of her baby posted around the building with huge block letters spelling out the child’s name.
“It was an extravagant party,” says Blockmon. “I feel like with my mom and sister being party planners there was no choice but to go over-the-top. The kids played around for an hour or two, then we did the cake and took pictures, then gave them treats. We had customized coloring books.”
Blockmon remembers her own birthdays being small family encounters. But she wanted to make sure her child’s big day was one everyone in attendance would remember, even if the guest of honor would not. The young mother from Kansas City, Kansas, realized from past experiences the importance of giving a child the room to play and create without borders.
“The kids were in the play area jumping around throwing balls. They were playing with everything. They were a little wild, but I am learning that’s what kids do. We have to let them know as parents it’s all right to have a good time and just be their selves,” says Blockmon.
“It’s important because those experiences tie back into how you will be. If you have a hard childhood you will look at the world as somewhere hard. Anything you go through as a kid is going to stick with you. When a kid can find their personality, it is because they were free to explore and find out who they are. Let them be free. Let them be kids. Let them play.”
Looking back, Blockmon sees the party as a huge success and she is thankful to have a professional like Fuse at the helm to assist in bringing these services to parents in the KC area.
“I would definitely book her again and recommend her to other people,” Blockmon said. “I don’t use people’s past to judge them. People change every single day. Life is all about changes and new experiences.”
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‘A greater person’
After turning her life around and finding her calling, Fuse understands she is one of the fortunate few. Many find themselves falling back into the old life. Fuse, however, is never looking back.
Now she feels a responsibility to give back when she can. She volunteers at food drives for Mount Sinai Baptist Church and Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church. She has made it a point to provide free bounce house and playground party setups for holiday and back to school events, community baby showers and wellness conventions.
She donates clothing and school supplies to the needy. Anything to assist the people who are in the position she was once in.
Blockmon sees it this way: “If that person used their past to be a greater person, why wouldn’t we let them?”
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