One by one children queued up to face the Rodeo Challenge. Hanging on tightly to the handles, students tried to stay on for as long as possible on the revolving bull. It didn’t take very long for junior Nicole Cook to fall off.
On Feb. 28, the Singapore American School hosted its annual PTA County Fair all around the campus. Several hundred people from the SAS community and from Singapore came together to enjoy the fun-filled and service-orientated activities that surrounded the school. The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) set up events for families and students for a diverse group of ages. Such events included games, rides, food stalls, vendors, entertainment, and a used Book Sale.
Treasurer of the Parent Teacher Association Jennifer Loi said, “The purpose of the County fair is to build community, a day for the whole SAS community to have fun and to support the high school clubs and the fundraising that they do. It also serves for the fundraising for PTA where all funds are for student services like the interim scholarships and senior scholarships.”
The largest attraction featured more than 20,000 books. This was the pre-owned book sale which was put together from a year long process of donations and disposals of previously read books. This event was sponsored by the PTA and The Asian Tigers Mobility.These books were sold at very affordable prices with an assurance of great quality.
Loi added, “The used book sale provides a service to the community. Years ago it started off because it was hard to get books in Singapore, but companies such as Amazon have made it easier. Now the book sale is a good way to promote reading and recycling in SAS.”
In the high school gymnasiums, several stalls were set up with food, snacks, drinks and desserts. Representatives from clubs and organizations from school were selling their goods as a fundraiser in order to achieve their goals.
President and founder of the service club Achieving Dreams Toorjo Mishra said, “We sold Subway cookies and 100 Plus cans in order to raise money towards building a new special branch at the school we help out in West Bengal, India. Something as simple as selling cookies and drinks was able to make such a huge difference to people’s lives after we raised nearly $500 from sales from the County Fair.”
It wasn’t just food and drink. The service club Read organized video game booths to help raise funds for their cause. Children, students and parents came together to play Guitar Hero, Mario Kart and Rock Band. Theater Make Up Club brought their skills to the fair and painted the faces of young children.
The baseball field had turned into a field of adventure for the students of SAS. Bouncy castles, the Zorb, and the Rodeo were just some of the attractions out under the scorching heat where students had a great time with their friends. Along with these games there was a Grassroots Soccer event and a stage where students performed entertaining music and dance performances.
Junior and president of Grassroots Soccer Tristan Grigg said that “the play field was ecstatic. The games were interactive and encouraged bonding with friends. It was good because most of the money went towards good causes.”
It was yet another successful County Fair for the year of 2015.
THE EYE 