One of oour lifesavers in the volunteer department has been families in our school who also have high school students. Many go to the classical high which has a monthly community service requirement for the students. They have helped in the kitchen with food, policed the parking lot as security, helped decorate--just about anything we needed done. At the school play, we even had several act as babysitters for the youngest children--we put them in the media center armed with videos and they corraled the little ones so the parents could enjoy the play starring their older children. It worked out extremely well.
We too had previously used an all in one carnival company, but switched to an inhouse production. Our teachers are in charge of their own booths (PTO has a large supply of games) and getting their own volunteers. PTO does the food( nachos, popcorn, cotton candy and usually pizza)The teachers get very creative with the booth ideas and they reap the benefits of their hard work by getting the money they raise for class supplies. It has done wonders for school morale.
Good luck on yours.
Well with the weather being nice, we ended up having a GREAT event. I think using the honor society students has worked out great for us. We as a "Parents Group" did very little to make everything run smoothly. We had the normal set up and take down to make sure that everything was done right but it was nice having the extra hands that didnt' have to worry about thier kids. It's nice to be at the event and also beable to enjoy the event not just work it. Can't wait for next years that's how good this years went. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Our Carnival is coming up tomorrow [img]smile.gif[/img] Instead of trying to get parent volunteers we use the high school honor society students. We have 10 come 1/2 before to help set up and stay an hour and a half then the next 10 come and stay 1/2 after to help with clean up. This works out great, they run all the games, take care of ticket sales and face painting. The Parents Group regulars take care of the raffle table and food table. It makes it nice so that the whole family can enjoy the event.
I am kind of late to reply but this might help someone. We have our carnival around Halloween. Our game and food booths are sponsored by classrooms. The teachers choose the game or food item that they want in their booth. Parents from that classroom are then responsible for running that booth. If there isn't enough food items then we do a large food booth. We also do a picture booth, 6th grade does the cake walk and we just started a jail this last year. It was a little slow at first but it caught on towards the end and everyone is looking forward to it for next year.
Volunteers are then only needed for ticket sales and any booths that we do specifically. I also had a co-chair which worked out great. She took care of the volunteers and I organized the booths and the creative stuff. We used our stengths and we worked great together.
Hope this helps someone...........if you have any specific questions please don't hesitate to ask.
WE HAVE A GREAT CARNIVAL EVERY YEAR!! OUR WE HAVE A "VOLUNTEER CO-ORDINATOR" TO GET OUR VOLUNTEERS FOR EACH GAME/KITCHEN HELP. WE HAVE A "HEAD" PERSON IN CHARGE FOR KITCHEN AND SHE SHOPS/ORDERS ALL FOOD. WE ALSO GET "HEAD" PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF "GAMES" GET GAMES SET UP THE DAY OF CARNIVAL. "PRIZES" PERSON ORDERS PRIZES/TICKETS FOR SALE/BALLOON FOR DART GAME/ AND SETS OUT NIGHT OF CARNIVAL AND MAKES SURE PRIZE BAGS ARE KEPT FULL. "TICKETS/SALES" OUR PTO TREASURE AND 2 HELPERS COUNT MONEY AND TICKETS. AS A PTO BOARD WE SOMETIMES VOLUNTEER FOR THESE POSITIONS IF THEY ARE NOT FILLED. WE TAKE CARE OF SCHOOL FLYERS. OUR SCHOOL ALSO CO-ORDINATES THE SCHOOL RAFFLE AND WE HAVE A "HEAD" PERSON FOR THIS TOO.
HOPE THIS HELPS
