Another year, another resounding success!!!

For one day, March 19^th, Herbison Woods School became a fairgrounds, with midway games, concessions, a raffle, silent auction, lunch, games, prizes, bake sale, and more! This was accomplished in part from the generous donations of many area businesses and organizations, inspirational in their commitment to the students of DeWitt, who are listed at the end of this update. Let’s all support them in return.

The individuals who put on the carnival do so to enrich the lives of all of the students, to “give back,” and to get that great feeling that comes from helping. Please join me in extending a hearty thank you to each of them, and to their family members (who, undoubtedly, sometimes wished they hadn’t volunteered!) for their priceless contributions of time and talent! Allow me to elaborate:

Publicity

Karen Helt donated her time, talent, and materials again this year to compile a video promoting the carnival, and Theresa Bevier arranged to get it shown on the WITT channel! Cammie Cantrell put a page on the www.ptadewitt.org site and sent many email messages to the PTA email list about the carnival.

Raffle Prizes

After the initial set of letters went out, Kristi Lewis and several others she recruited contacted countless businesses and individuals to line up our raffle prizes! We implemented a graduated donation system this year, with Platinum Contributors each donating at least $100 toward the purchase of our first three grand prizes, then, area businesses donated another four grand prizes. Gold Contributors donated $30-$99 in value, and Silver Contributors donated $5-$29 in value. Kami Pasch manned the computer that projected raffle prizes and winners, and Schavey Road School Principal Greg Shubel announced the winners and contributors throughout the hallways. Cammie Cantrell and Tom Cantrell posted the winners on our website.

Raffle Tickets

Katie Ballard and Chad Ballard spearheaded raffle ticket sales and tracking, with invaluable assistance from Deb Blake, Maria Lammers, and Cheryl Schimizzi. The vast majority of you returned the tickets we sent home, purchased or unpurchased. Many of you bought and/or sold large quantities of tickets; one family even purchased 200 tickets! Several volunteers sold and tracked tickets the day of the carnival. In all, we sold almost 6,000 raffle tickets. Because all of the prizes are donated, all of that money just goes right back to the students through programs and services. At a dollar per ticket, that translates to a lot of funds raised!

Volunteers    

Paula Wood and Becky Greisinger spoke with hundreds of you to fill the available shifts. Together, they scheduled people for setup, take down, and all the volunteers needed in between! In fact, 93 volunteers worked the morning shift on the day of carnival, and 85 worked in the afternoon. Each one did a critical job in keeping the carnival running smoothly. Ryan Wood and friend(s) picked up and dropped off the almost 40 tables loaned to the carnival by The Catholic Community of St. Jude, the big jumpy moonwalk loaned by Twistars USA Gymnastics Club, and the popcorn machine loaned by the DeWitt Travel Basketball Association. Also, Roy Salazar picked up and distributed bottled water to each volunteer.

Silent Auction

Kelly Grim and Susie Tempelman worked with PTA building reps Laura Heinritz, Teresa Brown, Roz Kramer, Leann Lerie Matta, and Lori Fox who, in turn, worked with a multitude of parent coordinators on another fabulous silent auction! Our simplified checkout system put purchased baskets in the hands of the winning bidders sooner. Thank you to each PTA building rep and parent coordinator who worked tirelessly to get the baskets together, and to each teacher, parent, and student who donated so generously to your classroom’s basket(s). The variety in basket themes and care taken in putting them together resulted in even more money being raised than last year. Thank you to each of you who placed a bid on a basket, particularly those who placed the highest bid! Check out the ice cream parties section below to see who won parties!

Games

Cindy Brushaber and Renee Sheridan oversaw the positioning, set up, running of, and take down of all of the midway games, which many of you volunteered to run. Mark Allen let the kids use the bushel basket game he built, and Domino’s Pizza loaned us a game and donated several prizes! While moving most of the games from inside classrooms (as in previous years) to out in the hallways proved challenging logistically, the overall atmosphere was much more festive! Word around the carnival was that the games were more fun and easier to win (hmm…) and that they just keep getting better every year.

Game Prizes

This year, using the inventory database she compiled last year, Sandra Ayriss selected hundreds of affordable, attractive, quality prizes for our prize redemption room. She tracks what the biggest hits are from year to year, how many we go through, and which ones seem to be of better quality. The way she displays the prizes makes the room a popular stop! Volunteers doled out prizes and helped the kids pick out prizes they’d really enjoy. The media center is the ideal place for the game prizes room; the carpet helps keep the noise down!

Kitchen/Lunch

Joined this year by Shelly Beyer, Bonnie Rios returned to oversee the kitchen/lunch service. Working together with area businesses, they were able to get most all of the food and beverages donated. Coca-cola donated 10 cases of pop and 2 cases of water, and Culligan donated 9 cases of water. Domino’s Pizza donated 10 pizzas and napkins. Applebee’s donated salad and napkins, and Village Markett donated 240 hot dogs and buns. Besco donated the use of a water cooler, water, and paper cups. Farm Bureau Insurance, The Mallard Agency, Sam’s Club, and Meijer each donated money toward the purchase of food, beverages, condiments, and paper goods for the kitchen/lunch. Yum!

Bake Sale

Linda Riel ran the bake sale this year, which featured loads of specialty treats alongside more traditional fare. Camille Hudson labeled and tracked most of the bake sale items delivered on Friday, March 18^th. Check out the ice cream parties section below to see who won parties! In addition to selling baked goods, bake sale volunteers sent 45 dozen cookies to the kitchen to be sold with meal deals.  Also, they contributed 122 cakes and, by the end of the day, several cookies, muffins, suckers, etc., to the cake/cookie walk, led by Denise Sichau and her mom. The cake/cookie walk tends to be a hit with older boys, whose enthusiasm and repeat business kept things hopping!

Concessions

Although we didn’t have anyone exclusively overseeing concessions this year, a few people played key roles in making sure everything went well. Cindy Reisig and family and Leann Lerie Matta and family made a couple hundred bags of cotton candy the day before the carnival, and DeWitt High School student Phil Kolankowski oversaw all cotton candy operations the day of the carnival. In addition to the vast amount of cotton candy sold, we sold dozens of helium balloons filled with helium donated by Airgas, 100 grab bags donated by Fun Services, two cases of popcorn, and 45 gallons of ice cream and 100 cones donated by L&L Food Centers. The day before the carnival, Tony Noyola picked up the ice cream and cones, Mike Sharkey picked up all the popcorn, and Bill Sullivan picked up the helium tank.

Decorations

Barb Mahoney and Patty Maher, after considering the number of people who would be in the hallways, concluded, “less is more,” and strategically positioned signage and decorations that would not interfere with traffic flow, but would let people know where to find the fun. They worked together with other volunteers to make a bunch of festive new signs, and Tony Noyola and Nancy Noyola made the giant balloon arch in the big gym. After the carnival, all the decorations and signs were taken down in such a way that, by that Monday morning, it didn’t even look like we had been there!

Entertainment

This year, several entertainers came back by popular demand. Bright Eyes the Clown (she doesn’t like us to use her real name) donated her time, talents, and supplies to make lots of balloon helmets, animals, and other creations. Monique Zarotney was our “Pocket Lady,” trading prizes for tickets. Tiffany Herrmann passed along what some kids were telling her; that they learned how to juggle at last year’s carnival when she and the other jugglers were there. They were happy to try out their techniques with her again this year! Also, lots of kids were sporting cool designs drawn by volunteer face painters. And, a couple of brave souls manned the Karaoke machine (donated by Walmart), while even braver kids performed!

Ice Cream Parties

Sometime very soon, Laurie Walczak and Robin Goodenough will show up with ice cream (donated by L&L Food Centers and MSU Dairy Store) and all the fixin’s to reward the winning classrooms. Ice cream parties are awarded to the classroom from each building that has the most volunteer points, bake sale points, and/or highest bid received for their silent auction basket. A couple classrooms won in two categories, and there was a tie for one of the categories.

 Paid Employees

Normally, you might say a volunteer works so hard, it’s as if they were paid. However, after seeing how well our volunteers work, I’ll say that these next people work so hard, it’s as if they too volunteered! Joe Ingraham and Dennis Angel did a terrific job cleaning up during and after the carnival and tending to our other facility-related needs. Robin Scheffler facilitated the use of the food services area, and Kathy Severs and Ruth Powers assisted in the kitchen on the day of the carnival. Sherry McVay set up the computers and projector for our first attempt at a high-tech way to communicate the selection of raffle prizes and their winners during the carnival. DeWitt City Manager Jason Eppler had the carnival details placed on the DeWitt Sports Park sign, and Superintendent Jerry Jennings let us put yard signs all over DeWitt Public School property. Sue Kirinovic helped us with a new tracking method for raffle ticket sales. Pat Howard worked with us to throw a fun carnival while respecting and protecting the resources of the District, and had our message placed on the DPS marquee! The school secretaries and principals helped get the word out, sell raffle tickets, and answer questions, and the efforts of Julie and Becky, a/k/a the DPS “Copy Queens,” ensured you received notice about every aspect of the carnival (including this!).

This was another tremendously successful event which added thousands and thousands of dollars to the amounts available for the PTA to give back to the students. We absolutely could not do it without the support of individuals like you. If you did not have the opportunity to help out in some way, whether it be buying raffle tickets, sending in something for your child’s silent auction basket, volunteering, or any of the other many ways to get involved with this event, we invite you to next year! It is very rewarding knowing that you are helping fund programs and services for the kids, and, besides that, it’s just plain fun!

See you next year!

Lucille Hall (669-8281)

2005 Carnival Chair

DeWitt Elementary PTA