Sue's School Fundraising Experience - Bazaar Navideno

At last the long anticipated Colegio Rudolf Steiner Baazar Navideno has arrived to Parque Juarez. The annual school Christmas Fair is a much talked event and our family was eager to see how their fund raising efforts might compare to those of our schools in San Francisco - KDBS and Ring Mountain. Rewind back to October where I found myself sitting at a local coffee shop intently trying to decipher the rapidly fired Spanish that surrounded me as a few parents attended the first planning meeting. I thought I did quite well in listening as well as participating in the conversation. So in leaving the meeting I felt comforted by what seemed to be a decent amount of volunteers and the notion that I would be minutely committing my time to run a workshop table making snow globes. What could be harder? It’s not like I would be running the Parent Association? Flash forward to last week when it dawns on me that the Fair is in desperate shape as the site has not been confirmed, the volunteers not found, and the marketing just begun. And of course, the ESFJ in me (the Extra Special Friendly Joiner as the Meyers Brigg Personality test indicates) jumped in to hopefully save the day. Thankfully, I had the help of the fabulously large and resourceful Mancera Family (Liz and Fernando). The Fair would have been a much different event without my pal Liz and her hubby Fernando to work ferociously and pull every connection for resources. And so, even though I felt a lot of things could have been better planned and executed, from the perspective of the many children and adults that attended, it was a wonderful day. The entertainment was fabulous from flamenco dancers, to African drummers, and of course Poi spinners. The children enjoyed the puppet theater as well as the many holiday craft workshops. I only lament that I was so busy covering all the bases that I didn't get to shop from the many local vendors selling beautiful holiday crafts. Overall, it was a great event! Now, on to the debriefing to better prepare for next years’ Bazaar…