AREA — Each year Rotary Club of Oxford Hills puts on May Day Play Day the Saturday before Mother’s Day. This year and last, we were not able to run this program. The program usually would service 400-500 youth in the Oxford Hills. Thinking outside the box, we decided to take those funds that were allocated for that youth program and support our 8 local Elementary schools in their end of the year Field Days.

We sent out a request to each of the Elementary schools to find out what their needs were. This request was well received. The principals and teachers sent us lists of items and programs that they were putting on that we could assist with. Some of the items included heavy duty plastic for slip and slides, dish soap, sponges and buckets, balloons, water cannons for water play, sacks for sack races, paint for face painting, tie dye kits, sidewalk chalk, volleyball sets, freeze pops, water, and individual bags of popcorn. Two schools received monetary donations help with Rick’s animals shows and rental fees for bounce houses. It was very nice to help when we couldn’t run our typical annual celebration of our Oxford Hills youth through our May Day Play Day.

After the event we received emails and pictures from the students and staff. They had great feedback, like one student said, “This is the best day ever and we deserve it.” Another student said “I can see my friends.  We are playing outside together.” One of the teachers that requested bottled water said, “I saw the water had arrived the other day and I just wanted to thank you! This helps a crazy amount with field day and takes a big amount off from planning things! Thanks again!”

Students and staff at Harrison sent this thank you out: “All the staff and students from Harrison Elementary School would like to give a really big thank you to Rotary for the donations. The children had lots of fun. The heavy plastic was really a great success.”

Rotary of Oxford Hills would like to thank all the schools for letting us support their field days, knowing how important it was to celebrate getting school back to normal as our school year came to an end. From the pictures that were sent, it looked like a special time for all.

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