toy soup

our school has been thriving. even with all the economic problems right now, our enrollment has been steadily increasing. due to that fact, last year we built a six classroom addition. the building project unfortunately took away some of the land for the playground equipment that the kids would use during recesses. instead of seeing that as a problem, it was an opportunity to better use the space we have, and so the school purchased some great new equipment for the new play area. unfortunately, rebuilding the play area was quite expensive: new equipment, new woodchips, new swings, new sidewalks. so, as a way of diverting that cost, the school has a semi annual soup supper fund raiser! the teachers were asked to volunteer to help out with different aspects of the event. since my gift is in art, i was in charge of decorating the gym a little bit for the event. i spent a couple days drawing, cutting, taping, and laminating, and made a bunch of decorations for the walls. diana and i were able to attend the soup supper, and boy was i surprised at how it went! i thought it would be about 50 or so people who would show up, but by the time we got there (an hour after the event started), there were at least 150 people, with more shuffling in each minute! wow! it was really neat to see such community support for the school and so many people willing to pitch in with the fundraising! oh, and the soup, bread, and salads were really good!
(pictures of the decorations here)