Our fundraiser walk-a-thon a the school this year was PIRATE themed, and we had a lot of fun with that. For our opening assembly, we promised to make our principal “walk the plank” if we raised enough money.


Between the walk and the awards assembly, there were many hours spent counting money, tabulating the child and the classes that walked the most laps, as well as who brought in the most money, etc.
I made certificates, attached gift cards, prizes and the like until my entire kitchen table was covered with school STUFF.

Finally I got everything organized and was nearly ready.

Problems with the dunk tank?

Well, the dunk tank did give me a little bit of stress. You see, I met someone at PTA convention who gave me a price list for inflatables, and since they gave churches and schools a 50% discount, the dunk tank was only $65 to rent. But when I called, I only got an answering machine, and the website I had didn’t work. Finally, when someone called me back, he told me that they would be closed up for the season by October, and that they go to Mexico. I must have sounded sad and desperate on the phone (because I WAS) because he said, “Well, maybe my son can get it for you and you can keep it for the weekend and return it). OKAY! Anything I could do to get that dunk tank and not have to spend a whole lot of money would be good. Because of a copying mistake (not mine, but I’ve got serious fears of delegating, now), I was over budget already and feeling bad about it. So, plans were made to pick up the dunk tank on the night before the assembly. “Let me just tell you,” the guy said, “My son has asbergers and he really likes people to be on time.”

So, little did I know that that night would be my book club, masterclass for piano, volleball for the young women, murder mystery set up for one daughter, and another daughter wanted to go to Pleasant Grove High for a volleyball game so she could get extra credit. Add to that my fear that something would go wrong (Last year I went to go pick up the Sumo Suits the night before the assembly and the person WASN’T there and I couldn’t get a hold of her. I ended up having to make another trip to pick them up at 8 in the morning on the day of.) I wanted Ryan to come with me because I didn’t know how heavy or hard this would be, but he wasn’t going to be home until about 5:45. We loaded up John and Megan in the suburban and took off, trying to get there on time. We found the warehouse in time, and the guy was there, already getting things out of the big garage. Hooray, it fit in the suburban. Then we took Megan over to PG high for the volleyball game. People were streaming into the school, but they were all dressed up, like for a choir concert or something. She didn’t want to go find a volleyball game by herself, and I wasn’t going to go with her, so she decided not to go. Then we headed to our elementary school, calling the principal on the way. We met him there to unload the pieces of the dunk tank so he and the custodian could set it up and start filling it with water on Friday morning.

Too late for bookclub, I just got myself organized for the assembly the next day.

I hauled all my certificates and prizes, flag, and props into the school, and managed to get all the certificates distributed by the time the assembly was to start. Dunk tank was filled and we were ready to go.

We ended up dunking 6 teachers and the principal, and it was a LOT of fun.

(unfortunately, I gave my camera to a wiling helper, and all her pictures are from the same angle, and so the light is bad and the pictures aren’t very good.)

The kids LOVED it.

When we were done, it was time to empty out that dunk tank and load it up into my suburban. I got to drive to the back of the school and that felt like I must be breaking all kinds of rules.


I had told the kids we could use the dunk tank on Saturday, but John and his friends could NOT wait that long. They were bugging us on Friday afternoon to get it set up, so set it up we did. They couldn’t even wait until it was filled to play in it, and that water was NOT warm.

They ended up spraying each other with the hose while it was filling, and getting drenched in cold water.

Saturday was a beautiful day, with temps in the 70’s, (which is beautiful for October in Utah). Sunny and warm, we invited friends and neighbors over to dunk or be dunked. John and his friends used it again, dunking each other and laughing. At the end of the day, we had to bribe the girls to get up there, and they all did. So much fun!

Now that dunk tank is still in the back yard, waiting for us to take it down and take it back to the guy, I guess. Just another fun thing to do with our kids for the weekend!

I am SO relieved that this event is over. I have probably spent about 200 hours organizing and putting on this fundraiser, and I’m glad to be able to pack it up and move on. It was a successful year, as we raised over $19,000 for our school. I won’t be in charge of this next year, and I’m relieved. I would really like to focus on getting my chime choir going and not having so much walk-a-thon work to do. I’m sure I’ll be helping a LOT next year, but it won’t all be on my shoulders–Hooray!

Argh!