Simonds PTA Multicultural Fair A Guide to a Great Event Fall 2018

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1 Simonds PTA Multicultural Fair A Guide to a Great Event Fall The Chair this year for the MCF is: Juliana Cammer; or julianacammer@gmail.com. Juliana s two co-chairs are: Julie Song (juliesong@gmail.com) Melissa Filuk (mjcmfamily17@gmail.com) 2. Julie Song will be in charge of the passports (Thank you, Julie!) Her is included above. We need, from every culture, a typed paragraph (100 words, no longer) on this year's theme submitted to Julie. The deadline is Wednesday, September 12th. If anybody is too busy or has any other issues with the passport paragraph, please let us know so we can help. We want every culture to participate in MCF, but we don't want anyone to stress about preparations. Together with the paragraph, there should be also submitted one question for the students on the topic (the theme). The answer to the question shouldn't be included in the paragraph. Instead, the answer should be in the poster presented at every booth. Please see the attachment of examples from the passport last year. 3. This year s theme is Special Place to Visit. 4. The main aspects of the booths at the Multicultural Fair are: A flag of your country will be provided for you to use as decoration. Decorations, pictures, crafts, and informative sources reflecting on their culture. It is also nice if some of the decorations reflect on our current theme. They can be simple or fancy, anything to decorate the booth. Another option for decorations are balloons in the color of the national flag. Booth decorations costs are not reimbursed. Please create a poster made up according to the current fair's theme. The poster should also contain the answer to the question included in the 1

2 passport. The goal is to have the students to go to different booths and read the poster, looking for the answer to the question in the passport. Incentive for the students to go to each booth, answer each question and have their passport stamped will get a Free Dress day, date is TBD. One of the most important factors of the fair is the food that every culture provides for the booth. According to the new food serving policy from the San Jose Unified School District, all food served at the fair has to be store or restaurant prepared, cooked, and warmed. There is no home-prepared or home-cooked food allowed. All food prepared on campus for student consumption must be prepared by a person possessing a current "food safety certification" i.e. bought from a restaurant, caterer and/or professional kitchen etc. We can serve store bought food (in forms of pastries, pretzels, desserts etc.) which can be portioned at the booth and served to the public. Part of the MCF budget is used to cover some the cost of the food. At this time, up to $300 has been allocated for each booth. Keep all the receipts from the store or restaurant for the food expense reimbursements. If you plan on spending more than $300, please check Juliana for approval. The amount per booth is determined by available funds after regular costs for the fair have been deducted. All proceeds go back to reimbursing booth leaders for food expenses. This event is not a fund raiser. It is a PTA sponsored event. Please try and get as much donated as possible. We do have a tax I.D. school letter for the businesses (stores, restaurants) which would like to donate the food to the fair. The cost can be tax deductible. I strongly encourage all booth leaders to try and get a portion of their food donated. It will help with the overall budget and reimbursements. We will also provide advertisement at the fair for those businesses who make even a small donation. The FOOD has been a main source of the money raised from MCF. The types of foods have to be decided by every culture. We usually look at each culture providing up to pieces or 400 servings. The pricing of the serving will be discussed at the meeting and posted before the fair. The type of foods can be anything from cold snacks, desserts, pastries, to hot soups, and hot foods. Electricity hook ups can be provided upon request. The food serving containers will be provided as well. The size of the container 2

3 portions need to be medium to small to give more people the opportunity to sample more items. The booths are also encouraged to sell some drinks (bottled water, small sodas, tea, coffee, etc.). The pricing of the drinks will be discussed and set later. Selling of the drinks by the booths is optional. There is also going to be a designated location selling bottled water and soda (usually the Will Call). It will be important that all similar drink items i.e. water, soda be all the same price. The booth should have an activity for the children. All the activities are great for the kids to get engaged in other cultures. Children love them. They give our fair a special flare. If you can include some sort of activity to your booth it would be appreciated and make it extra special for our kids. Example: India offers Henna tattoos (they usually charge $1 for them and donate the proceeds), USA has games such as bean bag toss Every booth gets flag tattoos or something similar (TBD). These can be given out. 5. Raffle (gift) baskets each booth should provide 10 small items that can be used to make up Raffle Baskets. These baskets will be raffled off to the children who visit each booth and get their passport stamped. Children who visit all the booths will come to Will Call to complete a Raffle Ticket that will be entered in a drawing. They do not need to be present to win if they name is drawn. There are usually 10 baskets prepared by us. If possible, please provide the following: small cultural gift items and nonperishable food items that should be suitable for the students. If anybody is travelling to the foreign countries, please bring small gift items for the baskets. There are also different cultural stores in San Jose, therefore try to purchase 10 interesting items for the students. Please note, this expense is not reimbursed. 6. Entertainment will be provided by the Simonds Community. Every culture that wants to provide entertainment will have approx minutes time slot. 3

4 Singing, dancing, instrument playing, marshal arts show or others are very popular forms of entertainment. Please contact JULIANA for more information and coordination the performances. Also, provide a short description of the performance for our MC in the Booth Needs spreadsheet, so that he/she can introduce the performers to the public. 7. We start the Fair with the Parade of Nations! Get prepared to look great on the stage for the parade: costumes, flags, banners are highly recommended. We will need a designated person to walk in the parade for your county. You will receive a sign with your country name and flag on it. Also get as many kids to walk with your designated person. 8. The stage for the entertainment will be rented from the independent vendor. They provide the stage set up and break down. The size of the stage is 20 feet by 20 feet, so it is large, perfect for big entertaining groups. 9. We do have a lot of E-Z Up shades at school, but if you have your own, please use it for your booth!! We are going to need a lot of helping hands on a day of the fair to set them up. 10. Each year we get middle school and high school volunteers to assist at booths and general jobs. For the most part these students are very helpful. One drawback is that we never know how many will show up. Let me know later if you think you will need student volunteers at your booth. Please try and rally your friends and children to help you run your booth. Getting everyone involved is part of the fun. 11. It is up to us to advertise the Fair!! Word of mouth is the most effective way of getting more parents (and cultures) and volunteers to participate!! Here are some specific jobs we need co-chairs for. A couple of the jobs are for the day of the fair will need to be done by someone not running a booth. If you know of anyone who wants to help but doesn t know what they can do. Have them contact JULIANA: -entertainment scheduling - prior to event -entertainment coordination day of event at the fair. 4

5 -assembly of raffle baskets (items are donated by booth hosts and others) -running Will Call Booth at the Fair -volunteer (student & parent) coordinator day of fair 5