With six food trucks, carnival games, popcorn stands, and a bounce house, the Ada Carnival will provide an opportunity for the community to get together on May 15. Unlike a typical Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) fundraiser or single-night event, the carnival is the largest event Ada Elementary will hold this year. Organized by the school’s PTO and subcommittee, the carnival’s goal is to give back to the community and hopefully allow the school to break even on spending.
Mallory Strotheide, the co-president of the Ada Elementary PTO and head of the Ada Carnival production, has been planning the carnival and scheduling vendors since October. In order to help the PTO break even, Strotheide and the other organizers have found a way to borrow carnival games from Thornapple Elementary and charge each family enough to create an accessible night for all students.
“It’s a give back [event],” Strotheide said. “So we typically don’t make money; the goal is to break even. We charge each family $15 for the wristbands, and only the children are charged. Last year, we lost a little money, but normally, we have to pay to rent those carnival games, which are pretty expensive. Now that we’re borrowing them from another PTO, we’re hoping that we can at least break even or make a little bit of money. But the goal isn’t to make a profit; it’s really just giving back.”
By giving back to the community, the Ada Carnival is one of the largest events that unites the elementary school students and families, which is extremely important for fostering inclusivity. For Ada Elementary principal Melanie Hoeksema, who is a supporting connection to the PTO, that inclusivity is exactly what makes the Ada Carnival such a special event.
“[The carnival] just shows that spirit of community,” Hoeksema said. “It shows the inclusivity of coming together as a unit. We don’t often get huge opportunities to come together as one during the school day, so if we can extend that, and the more families get to know each other, the more we can build community, the more we can see what we have in common.”
Expanding past the immediate local Ada community, the Ada Carnival bridges gaps between schools while providing a laid-back yet fun night for all families.
“It’s a really fun event,” Strotheide said, “and honestly, [for] all of the kids, it’s fun to see each other outside of school, [and see] all the families mingling, chatting, and hanging out, eating dinner together, and all the kids running on the playground. It is just a really [good] community event. We even had people from other elementary schools come and bring their family and friends, and they loved it, too.”
However, the carnival would not be such a large event without volunteers’ help. Since the event is for the community, Ada Elementary hopes that parents can enjoy the carnival alongside their children. But if the PTO relies on parent volunteers, this would not be possible. Therefore, the PTO reached out to National Honor Society (NHS) high school students looking for volunteer hours.
“We have a whole bunch of NHS students working [the carnival], so hopefully parents don’t have to work the whole time, [and] they could spend time with their families and enjoy it as well,” Strotheide said. “It’s a really easy event to run if you have volunteers. The hardest part is finding people to volunteer, so the NHS volunteers are huge, because if we can have them working the games and working the stations, then the parents can really keep track of their kids… and then also just spend time with their families, to truly enjoy the night.”
The NHS volunteers are a crucial part of the production of the Ada Carnival, but they provide more than just support for the Ada Elementary PTO and parents. As formative mentors for the elementary schoolers, the high school volunteers find ways to give back to the elementary students and the larger Ada community by volunteering at the carnival.
“I love it when high school students can help come and volunteer their time and support,” Hoeksema said. “High school students can be such mentors and role models, too, whether [they’re] in the Teacher Cadet [student teaching program] or are Game Changer [volunteers]… Just seeing older students who come back and give back is just an amazing community piece, too. It really extends that school community from elementary all the way up to high school.”
FHC junior Mary Maddox, who volunteered at a Knapp Forest Elementary carnival similar to the Ada Carnival—where she is also planning to volunteer—has an important role as more than just a volunteer. From dancing and doing karaoke with the students to helping run stations, Mary got to connect with the younger kids throughout the night, showcasing why the volunteers are such crucial mentors.
“[Volunteering] is important for a lot of different reasons,” Mary said. “I think one of them is because teenagers are a role model for younger kids, and so when [we’re] volunteering or doing something good, that’s [the younger kids’] view into like their future, or what they can be when they’re older… so it’s creating that idea that there are people who are care and are involved.”
As the Ada Elementary carnival aims to connect the broader Forest Hills area through its volunteers and engaging environment, it perfectly exemplifies what it means to be a part of a large community. Whether it’s a student, parent, teacher, or high school volunteer attending the event, the Ada Carnival is sure to create lasting connections for all community members by bringing everyone together for a night of memories.
“Every time you see another person, you’re seeing a part of your community,” Mary said. “But when you see a big part of your community come together for something like this, it just shows that, although there are divides, like age groups or [different] schools, when people come together, we’re part of one thing.”
