Our school fair is a big fundraising event for our PTA, as we depend on it to raise the thousands of pounds needed each year for equipment and school improvements. We have 3 form entries, so are a big school. In fact, we are two big schools- the First and the Junior Schools are run separately but are on the same site. So, because we run school fairs and other events jointly, we should have plenty of families to pitch in and help.
That’s the theory, anyhow. In reality, we struggle to get enough volunteers to set up, man the stalls and clean up afterwards. We usually do manage to find enough people in the end, but only after the Heads have stood at the front gate and signed people up as they drop their kids off at school.
I wrote about this situation last year, so I won’t go on about it again too much. Except to say, it hasn’t really changed. It’s still the same old faces at the stalls. There are still plenty of parents wandering around with their kids, who seem to have absolutely no intention of doing their bit to help. And again we face the prospect of no summer fair next year, as the lady who organised it this year has said she is not doing it again. So everyone is just waiting to see if anyone steps up to the breach. Since I’ve been at the school, someone always has, but apparently there have been some ‘ no fair’ years in the past.
But back to this year’s fair; how was it?
Well, the most important thing was the weather. The sun shone fiercely; we could have done with a stall selling sunscreen and hats! There was a bit of a breeze though and we had the odd stray umbrella and awning go tumbling across the field before they were finally firmly secured.
I was looking after the Bobbing Duck stall for the first hour. It was pretty busy, and wasn’t helped by the fact I had bought the 3 girls with me, thinking they could go off and do their thing while I took money, added up ducks and handed out prizes. I left DH and DS at home, assuming they would be 10 minutes behind us, as I had to be there early to collect the float etc. Of course, what happened is that the boys didn’t turn up until I had almost finished my turn with the ducks, the girls raced back to me every 5 minutes to drop off increasing amounts of tat, and I had to excuse myself from the stall a couple of times to break up fights between my children. There was also an impressive tantrum from DD2 when I confiscated the bow and arrow she’d won, as she was in the process of opening it with the intention of using DD3 for target practice.
And it wasn’t like the bobbing ducks were boring. I had to keep track of who had hooked what duck, what the numbers added up to, who had paid and who hadn’t yet got their prizes and stop from people cheating ( usually the dads!). There were the inevitable tears when one sibling got a ‘prize’ and the other didn’t ( there were sweets for the losers), and we had one small toddler fall right into the duck ‘pond’. There was an awful moment while I waited for the mum to pull him out; she didn’t, so I did. The trouble is, I’m used to picking up DS, who is a solid 4 year old, and this wee chap was a tiny, just- walker, so he kind of flew up out of the pool when I grabbed him. I know he got a fright because he cried and I felt bad, and half wondered if I’d given him whip lash or something.
DH and DS turned up about 10 mins before I was due to hand the stall over, and had brought our trusty Radio Flyer wagon which was incredibly useful, as the kids now had somewhere to dump their loot. Plus it acted as a seat when anyone got tired.
We spent the rest of the fair throwing money at the tombola, watching the kids go on rides, standing in line for food and, oh yes, looking for DS. That’s right, we managed to lose our son at the school fair.
It was the old ‘I thought you had him’ scenario, and at first I wasn’t too worried as I’d just seen him standing behind DH as he waited for DD3 to finish on the teacups. But the next time I looked, he was gone. There was only one entrance to the fair and that was guarded but there was a bit of machinery at the back of the rides… Once that was checked and he wasn’t there, we looked around the stalls, and on the field, but he was nowhere to be seen. At this stage, about 10 minutes had passed so I tracked down the MC and described what DS was wearing. The MC was pretty laid back until I said DS was only 4, and then he interrupted the song he was playing in order to make a ‘lost child’ announcement.
Of course, no sooner were the words ‘can everyone pay attention please’ out of the MC’s mouth, than who should come trotting around the corner followed by his father, but DS. He was happy as larry and had somehow got onto the enclosed bouncy castle without paying. Of course we hadn’t looked there!
The show piece of this year’s fair was the balloon race. People paid £1 in order to have their name attached to a balloon. We released 100′s of these labelled balloons hoping that people will find and post back the tags. The tag that is found the furtherest away from the school, will win the ‘owner’ of that balloon a prize. The person who posts it back will also get a prize