Fernapalooza! Everybody Came! Huge Success!
We were really worried Thursday night of the last week of school would be a bust. Too close to the long weekend. Too much smoke. Not enough notice for volunteers... But holy teapot, what a raging success!
Thanks so much to the Fern community for coming out in droves as volunteers, bakers, cake decorators, three legged race racers, face painters, BBQ specialists, BBQ line attendees, and everything in between. Wow. We pretty much sold out of food and beverages, including the pop Bliss ran home to get out of her basement (not originally destined for Fun Fair). The kids went bananas for the games, the prizes, the mystery bags (new this year, inherited from families coming to Fern from Garden), not to mention the popcorn and candy floss.
Thanks so much to: Inez-Margaret Bliss, Madeleine Cruickshank for project managing this thing, Genevieve Bolduc for running the BBQ, Christine Wons for running the bake sale, figuring out the kitchen business and basically being a food boss (yes, chef), Valerie Kostyniuk for taking on the hot popcorn maker (glad we found you some shade), Stephen Dorsey, DJ extraordinaire, Trish Bentley, musical chairs phenom, Cathie Kessler, whose kids don't even go to Fern anymore for her games organization, and Erin Lawson for taking it over on the night, Sarah Johnston for the inspired idea from Garden to do Mystery Bags, Trina Klinck for Cake Competition, Rita Kotzia (who couldn't be there) for making all the signs, Corinne Muccilli for lining up food donations from Loblaws for a portion of the BBQ, Jessica Chester and Jae Steele for the fabulous face painting experience, Hanna Booth for running a tight ship at the prize table, and School Council co-chair Kelly Giddy for jumping in for marketing and back end stuff that needed to get done. Also thanks to Ashleigh Roylance for identifying the need for a First Aid station last year, and running it this year. And big thanks to Kate Hall for the poster design.
We had over 60 volunteers signed up, and recruited a bunch more as the night went on. So while I've name checked the folks on the organizing committee, a big thank you to all the parents, teens and tweens who jumped in to help, and for all the communications folks for their marketing support. We could not have done this without you.
We were thrilled to see lots of families from the daycare who will be joining us next year, as well as families from Howard and Garden who will be joining us in either grade 4 for Middle Immersion or next year in grade 7. A warm welcome to all those folks. We look forward to seeing you next year.
It was also great to see lots of grade 8's attend for one last party, and lots of Fern alumni return to volunteer.
Thank you to everyone who came to join us for one last hurrah, and Eid Mubarak to those families who included a visit to Fernapalooza in their celebrations.
Finally, huge shout out to the teachers and staff who joined us last night with their kids or grandkids (Vera Ciric's grandkids made a special appearance and Chris the caretaker had his baby and parents there last night!) as well as to our amazing admin and caretaking staff for helping us run the show! We could not run an event like this without their support.
Have a great summer all.
Alison on behalf of School Council Exec and Fernapalooza organizing committee