More than 210 attended the wonderful Kelley School PTA-sponsored Winter Family Fun Night December 6th that provided a fun-filled Christmas holiday-themed evening for families and friends to enjoy.
The many impressive attractions included:
• The amazing Holiday Book Fair
• Several stations were set up where cookies were decorated; hot cocoa, complete with marshmallows was
served; coloring took place; snowman and snowflake mobiles were made; pictures were taken; and a place to make-your-own pinecone bird feeders.
Michele DeYulio, Kelley School PTA president who coordinated and organized the event with PTA board members Juli Scharett (treasurer), Doreen Schommer (vice president) and Harmon Ranney (membership chair).
Other volunteers who manned the stations and helped in other ways included third grade teacher Michelle Lindner and fifth grade teacher Fiona Hayden and 11 members of the Newark Varsity Girls Basketball cheerleaders she coaches.
And again this year, were the verrrry popular horse-drawn, covered wagon rides provided by Glad Acres Farms from Potter.
Each of the eight, 18-minute rides through the wonderfully lit up for the evening Perkins Park allowed the 22 people onboard time to relax, sing carols and just enjoy the winter night riding on the wagon covered with holiday lights and drawn by horses Heidi and Bingo.
The lights were donated for the evening by Villager Construction Inc. in Fairport and set up by the Village of Newark DPW. Newark police also assisted at the event by helping with parking-related matters.
Nearly $450 was raised for the school library through the holiday book fair. Jennifer Bay, library media specialist at Kelley, Perkins and Lincoln Schools, helped families find specific book titles and recommend new series for home book collections.
“After a full week of having students enjoy the gift of giving at our PTA Holiday Shoppe, this was a great family-friendly event to kick off the holiday season!” DeYulio said. “Lots of families were able to come look at books and spend an evening together, and the new space in the cafeteria. accommodated the additional activities and materials very well. Families had plenty of activities to do while waiting for their wagon time, and the PTA transformed the cafeteria into a festive location for the holiday event on a limited budget.”
She also noted families purchased 6 books from the Teacher Wish List Kiosk at the Holiday Book Fair. In addition, the PTA purchased 70 books to distribute to grade-level teachers to add to their classroom book collections.
DeYulio said two boxes full of non-perishable food items for the Newark Food Closet were collected at the event. Families that donated were entered to win a free stocking full of books and the winners were: Dominic Wheaton, Brooke Arnold and Dean Aldrich.
Kelley School Principal Jeff Hamelinck, who was helping outside to coordinate the wagon rides, raved about the Winter Family Fun Night event.
“It’s brilliant,’’ he said. “ It’s the perfect time of the year for families to do something great like this together.”
Glad Acres Farms also provided the wagon rides for Lincoln School children during the day Dec 6th that were paid for by the Lincoln School PTA.
