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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Second grader Heather Vanzee tries to dunk Sumner Principal Frank D’Emilio at the dunk tank during Saturday’s Sumner-Danbury Carnival. |
Springtime fun: Elementary school carnival returns
During each school day, the Sumner Elementary School blacktop is filled with students running around and participating in a variety of activities during recess and lunch. But last Saturday, the students weren’t the only ones having fun on the blacktop.
Parents, teachers, administrators and vendors also joined in the fun on a cool and sunny day that featured a family-oriented atmosphere at the Hawaiian-themed Sumner-Danbury Carnival.
“We have a committee of 4 of us that had been doing a lot of strategizing and had been working on this for the past 3 months,” said Irene Mora, Sumner-Danbury Parent Faculty Association co-president. “But we definitely couldn’t have done this without the parents involved because even though we did the planning, the parents were the ones who actually put it together.”
Starting at 11:30 a.m. and ending at 4:30 p.m., this year’s carnival featured an array of booths and activities on the blacktop. Along with activities such as face painting and tattoos, sand art and super slides, carnival attendees participated in games such as the Football Toss, Cake Walk, Jacob’s Ladder, Balloon Dart Throw, Ring Toss, Milk Bottle Slam and Going Fishing.
The impact of the Sumner-Danbury Carnival goes beyond just fun and games. Sumner Elementary School Principal Frank D’Emilio sees the festival as a chance for the Sumner-Danbury community at large to interact and become a closer unit.
“It’s a fun event and the kids talk about it all week long,” Principal D’Emilio pointed out. “These are the types of things that we want to have more of because they have an element of community building.”
The Dunk Tank and Rock Wall were two new activities included in Saturday’s event that were popular among the carnival-goers. Throughout the day, various Sumner-Danbury administrators took turns sitting on the platform for the Dunk Tank event while the 24-foot Rock Wall had a consistent amount of climbers from beginning to end.
“We had less of our game booths from last year because of the other activities that we were working on such as the Dunk Tank and the Rock Wall,” Ms. Mora explained.
According to 4th grader Dominic Luevano, who repeatedly unseated Dunk Tank participants by hitting the target, having new activities is something he is willing to embrace.
“It is the new stuff that keeps me coming back,” said Dominic, who attended the spring carnival for the 3rd time on Saturday. “And I love how our school has events like parades and fairs.” (story continues below)
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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Lauren Ford and Brendan Hawkins have their photograph taken in front of a Hawaiian-themed backdrop during Saturday’s carnival. |
Whether she was participating or not, the Dunk Tank and Rock Wall also made a difference for 5th grader Maggie Latham, who found the additions to the carnival entertaining.
“I liked the rock climbing wall and it was fun to also watch others climb,” she said. “I also loved the Dunk Tank. The carnival is pretty fun and I think the younger kids really have a lot of fun with the different games.”
Even with the addition of two new events, 3rd grader Paige Horsley still experienced her highest amount of enjoyment in a more traditional activity—the Cake Walk. With an assortment of cakes, pies and other pastries available for the winners, Paige had a significant amount of choices to look through when she won her round.
“It was exciting because I like to do the Cake Walk and I had never won before,” said Paige excitedly. “I ended up choosing the chocolate cupcakes because I like chocolate.”
For the second straight year, the Sumner-Danbury Carnival also had vendors as part of the event with businesses such as Avon, Cookie Lee, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and San Gabriel Valley Tribune being participants this year. The Claremont Roller Hockey League participated in the carnival for the first time this year with a setup that allowed carnival-goers an opportunity to try and make a goal as well as learn more about the organization.
“The main reason that we wanted to participate was for more kids to sign up and because we wanted people to know that there is a hockey organization in Claremont,” said Cliff Smith, coach and board member of Claremont Roller Hockey League.
While the carnival helps to raise money for Sumner and Danbury schools, the 5th graders specifically use the event as a fundraiser for the following year’s 6th grade science camp. The proceeds from the food sales go toward the science camp fund.
Also included in the carnival were raffle prizes divided up by grades that each featured a different theme such as pet pampering, arts and crafts and movie night. Within each basket were multiple items related to the theme donated by parents and students from the respective grades.
“We’re really working on the carnival being the school’s biggest fundraiser each year,” Ms. Mora said. “We had more activities this year and we also upgraded our prizes. It was a huge success.”
—Landus Rigsby
