Pre Fun Day Work Days

Last Spring dedicated volunteers started organizing Fun Day.  I didn't really know what Fun Day was as it is an every other year event.  Off set by the other other year Fun Run which our kids participated in last September.  Everyone kept saying, "Oh, Fun Day is SO fun!"  Fun Run is just about raising money but Fun Day is a blast.  So I thought I should probably help out with such a cool event.
They said they needed a DJ and MC for the stage where they would have live music.  Normally I do not volunteer Marty for things without him being there but I knew this was right up his alley.  At the time they talked about having a Prosecco Stand and my good friend, Fionnuala, volunteered and then looked at me to see if I wanted to help and I said, "sure!"    Shortly after we

volunteered to do this they changed the stand to be margaritas and then I was super happy that I volunteered to man this booth.
So then we all take off for summer but thankfully the people in charge were still organizing it all because nearly everything was set and coordinated when we returned in August.
One of the big things is a raffle.  A team gathers a TON of donated prizes (in this case 500+) from local businesses and then the winning tickets get to claim their prize at Fun Day.  The two women who signed up did a fantastic job of acquiring all of these prizes over the summer but one had since gotten a full time job and the other was invited to an amazing trip to Iceland to see the Northern Lights.  That left a big

whole in man power.  They asked me if I could help which I did and it was actually pretty fun.  I sold raffle tickets at the Elementary and High Schools during lunch time.  It was really a treat to be at school while our kids had lunch so I could see a part

of how their day goes while they are at school.  Josie, again, was a NO PHOTOS, girl.  But Benjamin and his buddies happily smiled for me while they ate their lunches together.

It was fun to see the kids get so excited about opening up their raffle ticket (high school aged and Elementary alike) which they normally did very excitedly right at the table where I was selling the tickets.  There were 500 winners and then probably 2,500 losers so they had a one in five chance of winning.  Our kids

each spent 10 Euro and each opened one winning ticket.  Later in the week I gave them another 5 Euro each and they both ended up with one more winner each.  So, as a family we had 4 winning tickets.  I have to say it did feel exciting.

At the end of the week of raffle sales and the day before Fun Day the same group of dedicated volunteers met to gather all the prizes that had been acquired and were stored in different places throughout the school.  The prizes were all wrapped - yes, over 500 prizes wrapped- although some gift certificates and things just put into a colorful envelope or a simple ribbon tied around it.  Then a sticker with a number was put on each prize which would then correspond to the winning number on the raffle ticket.  The prizes were lined up and then ready to be handed out.

The booths and stage were set up on Friday night for Fun Day and everything was nearly set.