Back in mid-November I helped put on a fall carnival for the girls' elementary school. I have been trying to get involved in the PTSO, and this was my first big event. I was put in charge of putting on all of the games. It turned out pretty fun, but it was a lot of work. We had 14 different activities for kids to do, and all came with prizes to win and such, so it was an ordeal to get together. Once things got going everything turned out pretty well. The High School ROTC group supplied volunteers to run all of the games and they were really great with the kids. I was a bit surprised to find out the day of that I would be the one responsible for 30 teenagers for the entire day. I thought they might have had some chaperones coming with them, but that wasn't the case. They were good though as long as we were busy. I only had a few trouble makers to deal with. Below is my girls running the relay race:
This is the "Electric Slide" (cake-walk) it was easily the most popular game around because we were giving out king size candy to the winners of the game.
This was the dinosaur dig game. It was very messy, but a lot of the kids really liked it. Jaxon kept going back to it to throw sand around.
This is just a snapshot of some of the other games we put on.
Jake was able to convince the people at his work to let him bring a display for the kids to look at, and he got the army unit to drive a humvee over for kids to crawl in and out of. That turned out really well for everyone. The kids really liked the humvee and the adults were really interested in the UAV display. Jake always had a crowd of adults around him asking questions. He brought a 3rd-scale UAV, which is just a smaller one that they use for training before flying with the real deal. It was awesome that he was able to do that. Below is Jake's display and a kid of a friend of ours who came to help him set up.
We also had a big craft fair with over 30 vendors, a silent auction, and we served pizza and drinks for lunch. The craft fair and the auction were for fund-raising, and we didn't charge for games or prizes and only charged enough to break even on the pizza. It turned out to be a pretty successful event where we were able to raise a good deal of money for the school, plus provide some fun activities for people to do. I am enjoying the PTSO, but I think it is sad that so few people are involved in it. At my first meeting there were only 10 parents, and there are 500 students at the school. They were excited that we had such a huge turnout. yeah.
This is the "Electric Slide" (cake-walk) it was easily the most popular game around because we were giving out king size candy to the winners of the game. 
This was the dinosaur dig game. It was very messy, but a lot of the kids really liked it. Jaxon kept going back to it to throw sand around. 
This is just a snapshot of some of the other games we put on.
Jake was able to convince the people at his work to let him bring a display for the kids to look at, and he got the army unit to drive a humvee over for kids to crawl in and out of. That turned out really well for everyone. The kids really liked the humvee and the adults were really interested in the UAV display. Jake always had a crowd of adults around him asking questions. He brought a 3rd-scale UAV, which is just a smaller one that they use for training before flying with the real deal. It was awesome that he was able to do that. Below is Jake's display and a kid of a friend of ours who came to help him set up.
We also had a big craft fair with over 30 vendors, a silent auction, and we served pizza and drinks for lunch. The craft fair and the auction were for fund-raising, and we didn't charge for games or prizes and only charged enough to break even on the pizza. It turned out to be a pretty successful event where we were able to raise a good deal of money for the school, plus provide some fun activities for people to do. I am enjoying the PTSO, but I think it is sad that so few people are involved in it. At my first meeting there were only 10 parents, and there are 500 students at the school. They were excited that we had such a huge turnout. yeah. 
2 comments:
Wow! Great job Sarah (and Jake). It's great that you're so involved- it is sad that most people aren't.
That looks like it was a big event and took lots of planning. Good job. That's great that Jake brought his demo stuff too. We've participated in our PTO events and I've helped a bit too. We have a Holiday Dance tonight we might attend.
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