2009 Spring Fling for the Grant Park Parent Network

Hi Cubs and Gorilla parents

Nikki Zimmerman and I are both Tigers moms, and we have agreed to co-chair the 2009 Spring Fling for the Grant Park Parent Network. Planned for May 9 from 11:00-1:00, this year’s Spring Fling is going to be a blast, with the traditional egg hunt, special crafts, music, bubbles and yummy food.

Nikki and I both feel that GPPN is an awesome organization to have in our neighborhood, and we know that is it time for us to step up and help organize something, after enjoying the hard work of others for a while. Apparently, the tradition has always been for each playgroup to take on organizing an event. This works great, because everyone knows everyone else. However, it does seem like some institutional knowledge and experience can get lost. So, we’d like to try to do some “cross-playgroup” involvement with the Spring Fling, if possible.

While the Tigers are going to try to do the lion’s share of the Spring Fling organizing, we’d love to involve the Cubs and Gorillas as much as possible. (I just loved using all of those animal names in one sentence ;-) We totally understand that your kiddos are still quite young, so you may not have a lot of time available to help. But, if even a few folks are involved just a little, it may help out in the future. If nothing else, plan on attending the Spring Fling on May 9 so that you’ll know what it’s all about.

If anyone can help, here are our volunteer needs:

Before May 9

- Bake Sale Coordinator - This would involve mainly handling e-mails from volunteer bakers and staying close to home the day or so before the sale to let people drop stuff off at your house. We’ll have other volunteers to staff a table for the bake sale at the event, and we will be reusing the tag templates from the Halloween bake sale.

- Raffle Coordinator – This volunteer would help Nikki make calls to local businesses to solicit donations for items that we can give away in a raffle. They did this for the Halloween event and were actually able to raise a decent amount of money.

- Egg Stuffing Party – Apparently, this can turn into a wild party. We are going to have an egg stuffing party, tentatively set for May 7 at Melissa’s house. The plan is for it to be like a Mom’s night out, only we’ll be stuffing candy and toys into plastic eggs. Wine will be involved…….

On the day of May 9, we’ll need volunteers to sign up for 1 hour shifts (or less if we have enough) for:

- Set Up

- Grillers

- Bake Sale Table

- Food Sale Table

- Craft Table

- Face Painters (if none of us are artists, we’re considering temp tattoos)

- Clean Up

Please e-mail me at melissa@melissamason.com or give me a call at 678-520-9898 and let me know if you can contribute in any way. If have any other ideas, please let me know also. We’d love all the help we can get.

Thank You!

Melissa Mason