Young Paige Semore takes a pony ride as her mother, Jacky, watches over her at BCA’s “Fall Festival,” Saturday morning.
Saturday was “fall festival” day at two of East Ridge’s finest schools.
East Ridge Elementary _ the second largest public school in Hamilton County _ hosted its fourth annual “Pioneer Palooza,” while Belvoir Christian Academy _ a small private school that is an icon in our city _ opened up its campus to the long-running ” BCA Fall Festival.”
“This has been going on for over 60 years,” said Emily Patton, a staff member at BCA. “Some ladies who were parents back in the 1950s got together and started this.”
All proceeds from the event, Patton said, go to the Parent/Teacher League, which last year purchased 20 Google Chrome Books for use by all the students in fourth through eighth grades. Organizers of the event want to take this year’s profits and buy more of the computers.
“They don’t get to take them home,” Patton said of the computers, “but all the students have access to them while at school.”
Young Paige Semore saddled up perhaps for the first time in all of her 18-months and took a pony ride while here mom, Jacky, supported the child. Nearby, a petting zoo, with the biggest rabbit this reporter has ever seen hunkered down in a pen with a little pot-bellied pig.
There were local crafts and food for sale as everybody (about 300 people were there) worked up an appetite milling around on a beautiful spring morning.
About a mile away, hundreds of people packed the parking lot of East Ridge Elementary for its “Pioneer Palooza.”
Kristen Ruiz and Heather Townley were working at game set up for the kids to toss a rope with two balls attached at the end with the object being to wrap it around a makeshift goal post.
“This is our biggest fundraiser of the year,” said Ruiz, a fourth-grade teacher. “It also provides an opportunity for the students to interact with their teachers in a non-academic atmosphere. It demonstrates to them that we are human and we are all doing fun things.”
There were “bouncy houses” set up in the adjacent ball fields for kids to go have fun on as well.
The money raised at the event will help the school fund its “Leader in Me” initiative, organizers said.
The “Leader in Me” initiative is a “whole-school transformation model _ developed in partnership with educators _ that empowers students with the skills they need to thrive in the 21st century.
“Pioneer Palooza” was sponsored by Crosspath at East Ridge, Redemption Point Church, Stanley Heights Baptist Church, Pizza Hut, 1885, Elder’s Ace Hardware, Chick-fil-A, Thacker Insurance, and Fazzolis.
Heather Townley helps a youngster in one of the many games offered at East Ridge Elementary’s ‘Pioneer Palooza,’ Saturday on the school’s campus.
