As you know, the Fall Festival is our flagship fundraiser for the year. Last year was a huge success, partnering with Carolina Tiger Rescue, inspiring teachers and students to work on some great big cat projects.
This year, we are thrilled to partner with the Carolina Raptor Center for our Third Annual Fall Festival: Feather Fest. This organization takes in sick or injured birds, bringing them back to health. In most cases, birds are able to return to the wild. Other birds are cared for at the Center to educate visitors.
As part of our collaboration, the Raptor Center staff conducted an onsite program a few weeks back. Children were thrilled at their first-hand encounter with these magnificent creatures. The Carolina Raptor Center will also be at the Festival next week along with fun activities, vendors and scrumptious food. A highlight of the event is to release a recovered bird back to the wild from our playing field. We’re still not 100% sure this will happen (nature can be a bit unpredictable!), but Center staff advise us that there is every chance it will.
A related piece of good news is that Mayor Dick Sears is our VIP guest for the Festival! We are honored that Mayor Sears will be coming, and want to put our best foot forward.
So you can see why we really need your help making this the most successful event ever at the school. Here are three vital ways in which you can be a huge help:
- Tap your colleagues, friends and family for additional donations, including items for our raffle. All donations are tax-deductible, and we have a bunch of benefits at different levels. (Check out the levels and associated benefits.) We’ve started reaching out to local businesses and organizations who would exhibit at the festival, but if you have any personal connections, please share the festival info with them.
- Coordinate, manage and organize activities during Festival week. You can be point person for a particular activity, liaison with vendors ,and being on call to help with set up and take down. This will be done mostly by exhibitors and volunteers but we need you to take charge of at least one or two activities if at all possible.
- Spread the word. We are creating flyers and posters with our spiffy Fall Festival graphic (which will also be on a teeshirt). We need you to post those at your workplace, stores and anyplace else where interested folks hang out. Please stop by our office to pick up a handful of flyers.
Once again, we really cannot do the Festival without us all pulling together. It truly is a community effort and your support is so much needed and appreciated.
Cheers!
Julie