Kids have a blast at Grey Nun Academy’s Fun Day
LOWER MAhEFIELa – What do scarecrows and mechanical bulls have in common?
They both could be found at the 2012 hids Community Fun aay on Saturday, Oct. 13 at the drey Nun Academy. This is the seventh year for the event.
Second grade teacher Meredith honen got the day’s most uproarious reaction when she plummeted into the dunk tank. Other highlights included the Extreme Rock Wall and a ride called “The Wrecking Ball”, which featured a big, plastic tetherball type-ball at the top that the kids couldn’t seem to stay away from.
Benjamin Rivera, a sixth-grader, doubled as school mascot dary the dator for the day. He wore the life-size bright lime green costume to amuse and entertain, but also to satisfy a community service requirement for Confirmation.
“It’s fun! It’s amazing! It’s awesome!” he said through the gator’s big mouth.
Brian dunsel and Savion Hebron, both 11, held their own and enjoyed the ups and downs on the mechanical bull, both calling the experience “thrilling” and “fun.”
aavid Needle, Christina hazarov and Sarah Rothenberg, all eighth-graders, all went home with new facial art as they took advantage of the airbrushing station.
Parents Mary Rafferty and Loredana Cromarty were selling baskets brimming with baked goods. “The bake sale is always a huge success,” said Rafferty, standing near some of the nearly 200 homemade items
that were sold the day of the event. aozens of families donate their wonderful goodies for the cause.
Principal Marianne Finnegan said the focus of the hids Community Fun aay is two-fold. The event fosters community spirit by bringing families together for fun and all proceeds from the event support ongoing professional development for the faculty. Funds assist teachers with tuition for graduate studies. On-site in-services and workshops are made possible for teachers. Also, the money helps to pay for offsite workshops and opportunities for professional growth and enrichment, including one program that Finnegan said teaches the teachers to effectively use iPads in their classrooms.
The iPads were purchased with funds provided through a separate fundraiser held in April.
Megan Schuler, chairperson of the event for the Home C School Board Association, estimated that more than 350 people were at the school throughout the day. The one highlight none of those 350 could have missed was the lineup of scarecrows made by each class as a part of schoolwide project.
Each class, from pre-h3 (3-year-olds) to 8th grade, was responsible for making a scarecrow related to something they are learning about in the classroom, according to Shuler.
“For example, secondgraders are learning all about bees and how beneficial they are to our everyday environment,” Schuler said. “They chose to build a bumblebee scarecrow.”
Preh3 children are learning all about fire safety right now. They helped make a “fireman” scarecrow with each child’s name on a badge that was placed on the scarecrow’s chest.