Fall Festival

This year’s Fall Festival was a medieval celebration. The Willow Brook community really came out in support of this annual event. We had over 500 students, parents, staff and volunteers participate in all the festivities. The Willow Brook castle (gym) hosted two large inflatables for the kids of all ages to bounce around along with fun carnival games to pass the time. The school’s new wing hosted the popular face painting, colored hair spray and tattoos. The cafeteria was filled with families socializing and enjoying the BBQ complete with hot dogs, brats and all the fixings graciously donated by the Farrell family. We appreciate all of the hard work by Boy Scout Troop 769 who came in to do all of the cooking and serving. As you continued down the hall, parents enjoyed the large silent auction. Linda Shead, Melissa Jones, and Maria Del Cid worked hard to put together all of the wonderful items up for bid. In total the PTO raised $2,234 from the auction. Thank you to all those that participated! The library and hallways were filled with more games, caricaturist, and balloon artist. As the kids racked up tickets at all the games, they made their way to the music room which was turned into prize central. They had so much fun picking out their prizes.

The festival would not be complete without the annual art fair, raffle and used book sale. Cheryl Livingston coordinated the art fair in which all students were invited to enter an original design using the medieval theme. All of the artwork was on display for everyone to see. The raffle is somewhat unique in that all of the prizes are a chance to spend special time with the teachers and staff. The students had a chance to be principal for the day, lunch or breakfast with their favorite teachers, craft time, music time or even a scooter ride. The kids have so much fun with the raffle each year and we are so appreciative of our wonderful teachers for their support. The PTO would like to also thank Joan Halveland for heading up this year’s raffle. The used book sale was bigger than ever. We were amazed at how many books were turned into the school.

To make all of this happen, it takes a lot of hours and help from parents. Samara Henry helped coordinate all of the volunteers to run the games. We had a tremendous response from the high school and middle school this year so many parents did not have to volunteer. Wendy Ryan took charge of the prizes and Stephanie Reynolds handled the registration table during the whole event. There were also several parents that spent countless hours on Friday night setting up for the big event. We would like to thank Colleen Davidson, Laura Sunderman, Stephanie Reynolds, Wendy Ryan and her family and the Meyer family for all of your hard work and creativity. We were also lucky to have Mrs. Dixon assist with decorations and make the wonderful dragon posters you saw all over the school. Lastly, a special thank you goes out to Dave and Lois our WB evening custodians. They were very helpful Friday night and worked all day on Saturday to make sure our event ran well.

This festival was brought to you by the Willow Brook PTO. It is not a money making event (with the exception of the silent auction). We put this together to build community and let our families and students come together and have a great time. We look forward to next year and hope everyone will come out and join us.

Jenny Meyer, Fall Festival co-chair

 

 

 

Family Picnic

Our First Week Family Picnic was off to a fun start.  Dark clouds formed and then broke apart.  It rained!  Everyone responded quickly and helped to bring our picnic inside.  Once indoors we were spread out in the Café, the hall, and the gym.  Communication was ‘lost in space’.  The mid air announcements about the new location of games, prizes, and treats, faded before they reached anyone’s ears.  It didn’t seem to matter though; the children enjoyed their own games and playtime together.  The fruity popsicles were a nice cool treat but the cotton candy couldn’t be beat.  The kids stood in line with mouths watering while watching and waiting for their chance to see the ‘cotton’ spin.

Oh, did I mention that the smoke from the cotton candy machine set off the smoke alarm and the smoke alarm triggered the fire alarm and the fire alarm signaled the FIRE DEPARTMENT and the firemen responded and showed up at Willow Brook!  What excitement!  (We have to keep the cotton candy machine outside!) 

 

 

Despite the rain and confusion we came to this conclusion: The children had big fun-yes, it was cool-being with classmates and seeing their teachers after school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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