Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Middle School Volunteerism

I finally got my volunteer clearance at the middle school.  Good grief, the way I got shut down when I first walked into the office there this year, you'd think they'd all found out I'd committed multiple felonies over the summer.  The chorus teacher that I accompany was about to have kittens, he wasn't ALLOWED to have me in the same room with students until my clearance passed with the county sherriff office.  Good grief!

Apparently Middle School doesn't talk to the Elementary Schools, because I'd cleared ages ago through their channels, and, you may recall, had been volunteering nearly full time since the day before school started.
Anyways.  I'm back at Middle School.  Accompanying the choruses (which should be fun, because this is the year that they do the Disneyland Trip.  Wonder if I'll have to accompany, or if they'll use the CD trax.  It'd be kind of fun to say "Yes, I have performed at Disney", and not be lying through my teeth.)

Nobody stepped up to Chair the ice cream fundraiser committees for either the PTA or Band Boosters, and I made the mistake of saying "How hard can it be?"

You know the rest of that story.

Apparently, it's VERY hard, because this year, all the nutritional guidelines have changed, and they're all strict (and different, depending on the AGE that you are selling ice cream treats to, if you can imagine THAT goat rodeo!), and I'm about >THIS< close to just saying "Sorry, we will not be selling ice cream this year".  I can't believe all the hoops that we're going to have to jump through, JUST to become nutritionally compliant.  Blargh.

Anyways, I mentioned the Middle School volunteer clerarnce, because I stumbled into my new favourite volunteer gig.

This past Friday, I was the Photobooth Photographer for the first School Dance.

What. A. HOOT!

The evening flew by, and when I was done, I'd taken 504 photos, and had kids clamoring around me like some freakin' pied piper, wondering when they'd be getting their prints.

A sample:

Kelly and her friends, after indulging in the Sno-Cone fundraiser.

I love the photobooth.  It's also a fundraiser.  Kids can be in as many photos as they want, and if they want a print of a specific photo, they hand over a dollar, and write their name down on a list.  The photos are printed over the next little while, and prints are delivered to the home rooms.  I managed to get a deal, and printed everything for 10 cents each, so the school made a cool 90 cent profit on 500 photos, in just over 3 hours.

I did mostly full-body shots, in color, although it was the Black and White dance, so the shot up there isn't really representative.

And I took a few freebies, too.  I loved going out into the crowd in the down-times, and just shooting from the hip.



Parents are allowed to volunteer for ONE dance during the year (it's a gig that lots of folks want to be a part of, so there's a limit, so more parents can do the 'fun' volunteering job).  But when I brought the 500 shots to the Student Government Teacher-in-Charge, first thing Monday morning, with all shots organized, and labelled as to shot number, and home room, she immediately said "You *WILL* be volunteering for more dances, won't you????"  And when I said "Well, there's a limit.  Parents are allowed to volunteer for ONE dance only."  she immediately responded "OH, I can pull strings.  I can pull ANY strings.  Just say Yes".
I must say, it's FUN to be wanted.  Good thing I didn't screw up the photos.  I'd much rather be the hero than the goat.


So happy that Kelly's cast is off.
She went immediately from the hospital to her first riding lesson.


And then the next day saw her riding down the beach.

She's making up for lost time.

Gotta get rolling here. Choir practice in 2 hours. We are evaluating potential new directors as our current director is retiring.
But before I leave, I want to drop in a little fun shot.
Marco.....?



Polo......



Marco.....?




Polo.....!

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