Fun Times with the Family

This year, on Tuesday, September 11th, 2018, Fair Grove hosted one of its many Family Fun Nights; this event occurred in various parts of the elementary, including the parking lot, and lasted from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Fair Grove has been having Family Fun Night for more than fifteen years. Cara Kennard, a Fair Grove teacher stated, “Family Fun Nights are a great way to bring families together to spend time with other families in the community.” This event is ran by The Elementary Student Assistance Team, and funded by local Title 1 funds. The Elementary Student Assistance Team is responsible for setting the date for the event, as well as discussing potential ideas to include in the hour and a half long gathering. Furthermore, a group of teachers volunteered their time after school to help with the setup, making sure that everything was accessible and user-friendly for all of their participants.

Family Fun Night attracts a large crowd of people. Elementary Principal, Charity Hollan claimed, “We usually have 50-150 attend.” This year’s event, according to Cara Kennard, attracted close to two-hundred people! This number continues to rise as the years go by. The two-hundred attendees consisted of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, students, teachers, and of course, the children. Countless activities and stations were set up for everyone to engage in. Snacks and crafts were in the gym, while numerous automobiles were outside in the parking lot for people to look at. Families made geometric structures with toothpicks and marshmallows and they made construction paper trees. The biggest hit, however, was the table where everyone painted smooth stones and put googly eyes on them. In addition, families migrated to the parking lot where they were able to interact with one of Fair Grove’s fire trucks and one of Hodges Tree Trimming bucket trucks. In addition, Ashley Monday, a Title teacher, and her husband contributed by bringing their semi-trailer truck. Ross Everett also brought a truck from Meek’s and let the children look at a wide variety of tools. At the same time, people were in the lower elementary gym singing karaoke. All of these things granted individuals with many memorable experiences.

Fair Grove has a few Family Fun Nights dispersed throughout the year; however, in the future, Fair Grove hopes to put on a dinner at Family Fun Night. In order to help obtain their goal, monetary donations or food donations would be extremely beneficial to them. The school’s next event will happen sometime during the month of December, and before Christmas break.