Parents Work Together to Fix Booth for Fun Fair

From the Centre Daily Times, May 2, 2017
Photo, Greg Feinberg

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       Parents of State College Friends School students work together to fix the yellow food stand in time for this weekend’s Fun Fair festivities. The stand was blown apart early Tuesday morning.When Jillian Sherman, of Bellefonte, saw how severely Monday’s storm had battered her school, she asked to open up her piggy bank.
       The kindergartner’s mom, Martha, put her heart — and her hands — where her daughter’s money was, and she wasn’t alone.
The State College Friends School is having its annual Fun Fair this weekend, and for 15 years, one visible signal of that has been the long, bright yellow wooden food booth. The booth was brought out as preparations were being made, but the high winds Monday pummeled it.
       “It was crumbled to the ground at 6:45 this morning,” said Lori Pacchioli, the school’s director of advancement. “When the first children arrived at 7:45, that’s what they saw.”
       The kids were upset. Did this mean the Fun Fair was canceled? What would happen to the booth?
“I said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out,’ ” Pacchioli said.
       The solution was apparently teamwork.
       After Jillian Sherman saw pictures of the damage and asked to pitch in her pennies, Martha Sherman told her husband about the booth. Other parents got involved. They came together with hammers and nails and fixed the 15-yearold booth that was originally built by parents, too.
       “We’re a community here. We’re a family. When any part of it needs help, we pull together,” Martha Sherman said. “We wanted to show the kids about stewardship in action.”
       And they did, finishing up just in time for the kindergarten and first grade’s school play. Appropriately, it was the “Little Red Hen,” a story all about everyone working together for the common good.
       It wasn’t the only example. One family at the school lost power at the restaurant. Someone loaned them a generator. Other parents made soup for those doing the repairs.
       “This is what community does,” Pacchioli said.

Lori Falce: 814-235-3910, @LoriFalce