El Morro update: Boo Blast and more

Come one, come all to El Morro’s annual Boo Blast Halloween carnival, today from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. This year’s Boo Blast will be a ghostly good time with a spooky beach-shack theme. Bring all the kids to enjoy rides, games, prizes, treats and more. This year’s rides include a soaring Ferris wheel, a swinging ride, spinning tubs, a train and an inflatable shark slide. Be sure to visit the Clawdust Festival Haunted House.

In addition to homemade goodies at the bake sale, food from La Sirena Grill and Z Pizza will be offered as well as a new ice cream treat -- Dippin’ Dots. There will be a cake walk and a raffle with surfboards and skim boards as prizes.

The Boo Blast is an El Morro tradition for at least 30 years. Each year it seems to get better and better, with loads of help from parents, volunteers and community sponsors. What started out as a school fundraiser has become a cherished community event at which attendance numbers in the thousands.

It is the El Morro PTA’s single largest volunteer effort of the year, with the involvement of over 100 parent and community volunteers. The haunted house is especially awesome and terrifyingly terrific once again, thanks to Susan Heitmann, Beth Saxe and Tracy Sheilds. Enter only if you dare!

A huge thank you goes out to Elizabeth Lamb and Stacy Davis who have done a fabulous job as co-chairs of the Boo Blast Committee.

Admission is free to all. Rides and games cost 1 to 3 tickets. Tickets may also be used to gain entrance to the Haunted House and to buy food at the bake sale. Buy tickets at the entrance to the event for 50 cents each or 22 for $10. Please follow posted signs and park at the Los Trancos or Reef Point parking lots. Take the free shuttle to El Morro School. There will be no on-site parking for this event.

*

El Morro students ands parents turned out in droves to support the “Enter the Kingdom of Reading” book fair held the week of Sept. 19 to 23. Many thanks go to the numerous volunteers and especially to Lin Beers Steinoff and Terri Benson, who, for the second year in a row, did a fabulous job as co-chairs for this event. Together we raised over $15,000 for the El Morro PTA, and in addition we will provide our library with over $6,000 to spend on new books. In Scholastic Book’s “One for Books” program, we accepted $1 donations, mostly from students at the school, which enables us to send almost 200 books as well as a $200 “book allowance” to a school we are sponsoring in Louisiana.

The next Book Fair will be in May. If you are interested in volunteering, please write to linbeers@cox.net or tbenson@cox.net.

*

Crisi Hosea did a fabulous job bringing the El Morro student population the opportunity to sell wrapping paper and gift products to their friends and family. While the numbers are still being tallied, 50% of every purchase goes directly to El Morro. Thank you, Crisi, for making this fundraiser possible. Also, during the month of November, the 2006 Entertainment Books will be offered for sale. Please contact Crisi at 376-6808 if you are interested in purchasing one.

*

The Lunchtime Activity Program has started out with a bang. We have more children than ever participating in this wonderful PTA-sponsored program. We’ve made key chains, refrigerator magnets and lanyards and planted succulents in their own decorated pots. We’ve also done Halloween necklaces and jack-o’-lantern votives and have bingo coming up. The kids are loving the chance to be creative, play a board game and/or play out on the field with the principal.

The goal of the program is to give our students a once-a-week alternative to the traditional lunchtime recess activities. By providing crafts, games and an opportunity to play soccer or kickball with Mr. Duddy, our students are given a chance to interact with staff, parent volunteers and their classmates in a supportive, structured environment. The program enriches the campus life of our kids and the lives of our parent volunteers. By volunteering on Mondays from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., we have a chance to see our children in their world at school and give a bit of extra T.L.C. to children who may need some extra attention at lunchtime. The payback is priceless.

If you would like to volunteer, have any games or craft materials you would like to donate or any ideas to share, please call Mary Quellmalz at 497-7254. Mary has done a marvelous job and she would love to have more parents join in.