Matt Schilling can see it — Churchill’s athletic track filled with booths along its entire 400 meters, with local families returning each year for a Churchill Spring Carnival that becomes an annual community event.
For now, he’s happy with the pieces in place for the event’s debut Next Saturday, more than 30 Churchill student groups will host booths in the school’s first annual Spring Carnival.
“We’re not doing this with Churchill alone,” said Schilling. “We’re trying to do this with the community.”
“Last year, when a lot of us were running [for student government], a lot of students came up and told us it would be cool to have a carnival,” said Leia Lorica, Churchill’s student government president.
Lorica and her fellow student government members made the idea a reality with help from Schilling, a social studies teacher at Churchill and advisor to Churchill’s junior class.
Last Friday, Schilling and student government members
hammered together many of the carnival booths. Next Saturday, they’ll be home to student groups like Operation Smile and the International Club selling hot dogs, baked goods, snow cones and cotton candy. Churchill’s South Asian Student Association will sell samosas. The Drama Club will lead mask-making and decorating activities, and the Robotics Club will demonstrate some of its robots. A clown and a caricaturist will also be part of the event. Nationals baseball tickets will go to the highest bidder in a silent auction.
Students have big expectations for a dunking booth, where Churchill teachers and administrators will be at the crowd’s mercy. Assistant Principal Laura Hennessey is one of the willing dunk-tank victims.
“All those teachers who torture you all year? It’s revenge,” said sophomore Roisin Magee.