Getting ready for Halloween

Mike Swanson

Children at Agnes Smith Elementary School had a sneak preview of

Halloween when the bell rang early one day last week to make time for

the first campus-wide pumpkin patch and bake sale fund-raiser.

Each of Smith’s 25 classrooms turned a pumpkin into a work of art

that was displayed and sold to the highest bidder via silent auction.

A pumpkin transformed into the Mighty Ducks’ mascot drew the top bid

of $210.

Children at the pumpkin patch spent more time running around,

expending energy gained from the table full of sweet baked goods,

than they did deciding which pumpkins they liked best.

Five-year-old kindergartner Oliver Dominguez made a mirror by the

face-painting booth his home base between sprints around the

playground maze of $1 pumpkins. Oliver, who plans to be “a boy

zombie” for Halloween this year, slapped some zombie paint on his

face and twisted it into a variety of zombie-like expressions for

several minutes.

“I’m practicing my scary face for trick-or-treating,” Oliver said.

Oliver quickly shook off the suggestion that scaring someone who’s

trying to give him something for free might not be the best idea.

“Halloween’s for scaring people,” Oliver insisted.

Andrissa Dominguez, Oliver’s mother and vice president of the PTA

at Smith Elementary School, said his face-painting time isn’t limited

to October.

“With him, we have costumes year-round,” Dominguez said. “The

candy’s really the only difference at this time of year, which makes

him bounce around that much more.”

His 6-year-old brother, Sebastian, was more pensive, asking other

children questions about why they were playing what they were playing

and then determining whether it was worth his time. Though he didn’t

thrash around like his brother, a cast on his right arm indicated

that Sebastian could likely compete if he determined the activity to

be worth his while.

As Sebastian explained the appearance and significance of the

character he planned to be for Halloween, called Mask of Light, he

interrupted himself as if he felt he might be giving too much

information.

“Why are you asking so many questions?” Sebastian said.

The fund-raiser brought in $1,253 for the campus’ classrooms,

which will be paid to teachers in gift certificates to office supply

stores, and the PTA raised $926 through its $1 pumpkin sales. Debbie

and Hannah True from Melissa’s Produce donated pumpkins for the

event.

“Budget cuts have made it hard to afford all of the little

classroom things you take for granted,” PTA president Mary Lou

Shlaudeman said. “This gives them a chance a get a little something

extra doing something fun.”

While the amount of funds raised will benefit the school’s

classrooms, Dominguez said the excuse to get people out mingling was

the most beneficial aspect of the fund-raiser.

“Early in the year like this, we want to get parents out to the

school to meet each other, meet the parents, the PTA and have

everybody get to know each other,” Dominguez said. “The theory wasn’t

to make a lot of money, but to have something that people would want

to show up for with their kids.”