Just up loaded our field day events (
www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/document/371-field-day-activities
)
We had our field day today! We had 65 parent volunteers and ~50 local high school athlete volunteers! The high school seniors are basically done for the year, just waiting for graduation day to come. We contacted the athletic department quite a few weeks ago and the volunteering steamrolled into an amazing turnout! The students were thrilled that the "big high schoolers" were there for the day! Some voluteers came for the morning session, others for the afternoon and many stayed for the entire day. Those that stayed for the day were fed a pizza lunch with PTA funds.
Our field day is coordinated by the staff, with $400/year in PTA funds supporting it. Plus, we (the PTA) help get the word out months ahead of time about the need for volunteers for this day.
Just to toot our horns a bit...we had a huge event yesterday that brought in an additional 91 parent volunteers from 9:00-2:30! We begin advertizing these events at least four months ahead of time asking people to save the dates as the events are so big they can't happen without the help of parents. Our school has 700 students in 1st-5th grades. The school is 30+years old with 30% low income and we have ~100 students choiced out each year because we are commonly refered to as the 'getto school'. Believe it or not, 30% is the highest in the district so we are considered the poor school. What we may be lacking in income we more than overcome in involvement! I couldn't be more proud to be a parent of this school. The dedication of the staff and parents is overwhelming. To have over 200 volunteers converge on our school in two days has brought tears to my eyes and the entire staff. New parents have commented on how impressed and amazed they are at the shear number of parents who are involved. Little do they know that a year ago this wasn't the case. We turned things around this year by getting more information out through newsletters and email. We didn't beg for volunteers, we asked people to join in the fun and made it sound like everyone else was involved and they sure didn't want to miss out. OMG it worked!
Best wishes on your field day!