From girls softball to theatre, LASA’s first fall festival welcomed clubs and teams to fund and support their groups in fun and creative ways. Its main goal, however, wasn’t just to raise money, but also to increase involvement within the school community. Although it was the first Fall Festival at LASA, the Fall Festival was an old tradition at Johnston High School, and this year, it welcomed more participation than expected.
LASA clubs and teams set up booths with games, food, and other activities that were priced to a set amount of tickets. At the end, the booth could return the tickets they had received to earn an equivalent amount of money. Athletic Coordinator and organizer of the Fall Festival, Gary Howard, explained how the event will benefit the school programs and the overall student body.
“The fall festival is set up basically to build more involvement with the community and the school,” Howard said. “It also doubles as an opportunity for all of the organizations that we have at the school to participate in fundraising for their organization.”
The Fall Festival was attended by many LASA teachers and families who brought little siblings and friends to play the games the festival offered and explore the benefits that LASA has to offer. The festival was used as an opportunity to raise funds for the athletic and academic programs as well as advertise the opportunities LASA provides for its students.
“Especially with the fact that we are inviting middle schoolers and elementary schoolers,” Howard said. “So as they progress through their education and start talking about, ‘Hey, I want to go to LASA,’ they have an update or knowledge of what type of programs and things are available to them to participate in.”
To attract students of all ages, the Fall Festival featured many different activities, such as a dunk tank with the school staff and seniors inside, a cakewalk, face painting, and other fun games for the students and their parents to play. Freshman Scarlet Harvey, a girls basketball member, attended the Fall Festival and mentioned the various activities she was looking forward to participating in.
“I’m really excited about the water tank,” Harvey said. “I think that’ll be really fun for everybody to see them get dunked and I’m excited for all the yummy and delicious food that everybody’s been working so hard on.”
Freshman Arden Smallwood, a member of the LASA’s Dynasty dance team, explained how she hoped the Fall Festival would help support her team. According to her, she hopes it will both raise funds for her team as well and shine more light on her dance team.
“I hope that the Fall Festival can help spread awareness and joy to our team so that people can come to our games and help support us,” Smallwood said. “I’m hoping that this event can help spread awareness of the different clubs and groups of LASA and that more people can mix and mingle and experience different opportunities.”
Instead of games, some booths at the Fall Festival sold food to the people attending the event. Members of the women’s basketball team made and served fresh tacos to those participating in the festival. People could also buy drinks courtesy of the boys’ swim team.
The Fall Festival brought together students and parents of all different ages and schools, allowing elementary and middle school students to explore the opportunities LASA provides to its students. According to Harvey, the Fall Festival was also successful in bringing the school community together.
“I think this is really fun,” Harvey said. “There’s delicious food and I think everybody is just having a really good time, and being together which is awesome. I think everybody is just bonding, you know, playing games, buying food, just having fun and I think it just brings us together.”
Smallwood pointed out that activities such as pie in the face, led by the football club boosters, and the cupcake walk, led by the dance team, were two of the most popular games at the Fall Festival that excited the attendees. Students had the opportunity to throw pies of whipped cream into their classmate’s faces at the pie in the face booth and also earn cupcakes if they were lucky enough to be standing on the correct cone during the cupcake walk. Other popular activities were the dunk tank, axe throwing, and sack racing.
“Well, I’m super excited about the cupcake walk, partially because I’m running it,” Smallwood said. “I’m super excited about the pie someone in the face just because I think it’s a really fun way to have fun and bond with others.”
According to Howard, student participation was greater than expected. The event raised funds to support the school’s academic and athletic programs and built involvement within the LASA community.
“I would like for this to become a traditional thing, something we do every year,” Howard said. “We had a lot of success with, again, building a relationship with the community around us and hopefully creating a pipeline for the future, for kids that want to be a part of something from athletes to just academics. I’d like to see that be the norm, and I’d like to see it grow.”