Submitted By: Adele Stamenov, Hasini Chava, Maura Blum, and Samantha Metzler
National Junior Honor Society at IMS
On Thursday, Oct. 27, The Fall Festival took place at William Penn, a pleasurable after-school event designed for elementary students to enjoy themselves and celebrate Halloween after a long first nine weeks. The William Penn PTSO was kind enough to plan this annual event, as they do yearly. Children could decorate pumpkins, have snacks, and socialize with their peers.
The PTSO served as a significant part of the festival, being kind enough to put so much effort into ensuring that the festival was enjoyable. They worked wonders, organizing and directing several booths and stations, including airbrush tattoos, a bouncy house, a pumpkin patch, a gaga ball game, and serving food to the students. Alongside the PTSO, volunteers from the NJHS also helped set up and run the booths.
There were many different booths for the children to participate in, and the extravaganza’s attendees enjoyed them well! Many fun, fall-themed activities were set up, as well as food and drinks. The PTSO arranged for Chick-Fil-A items and Beedle’s Ice Cream Truck. Additionally, they had freshly made popcorn and apple cider to keep warm in the chilly weather. Aside from the food options, there were many booths and entertainment at the Fall Festival. Students showed up in costumes and could take pictures at a Halloween-themed photo booth or in front of a Bethel Park fire truck. Attendees could also get colorful airbrush tattoos or challenge themselves in an inflatable obstacle course with their peers. Another event star was the pumpkin patch; the PTSO brought in over one hundred pumpkins for students to pick out to decorate with fun stickers and cutouts.
Many of the kids at the event were willing to give their opinions on the event, and here’s what some of them said. Henley, a third grader, says, “I like this because I really like fall! I’m having a lot of fun.” First grader Henry says, “I’m having fun! I came here because I like Halloween. I also liked the bounce house.”
The chair of the PTSO, Jess Diener, has a few things to say about planning the event. “At the beginning of every year, we come up with events for the whole year, and we always have something to do in the fall! This has been done for many years because everybody loves it.” When asked if planning and revising ideas with the rest of the PTSO became stressful, Mrs. Diener said, “It’s actually really fun! There’s a lot of fun different things to do, and I love the fall, so it's really easy to pick fall things to do.” Mrs. Diener, with the great help of the rest of the parent volunteers, truly helped make this event a success.
Overall, there were many opportunities for the students of William Penn to enjoy themselves and socialize with friends. The Fall Festival was an extremely enjoyable experience for the students of William Penn. The true stars of the event, the PTSO, will continue to plan and host engaging events in the future, as they’ve been doing for years already.