Start-of-Year Picnics Bring Lower School Families Together

A Tale of 3 Picnics & 3 Balloons

The following is a blog post written by one of our KLS parents, Donna Griffit (Photo above: IL2 Picnic).

After one and a half years of no in-person meetups, our community is back and better than ever!

When I saw the email about the welcome picnics, I couldn't contain my excitement! I immediately volunteered to help with the IL1 and IL2 picnic.

For the IL1 Picnic, I joyously joined fellow KLS parents Agnes Chong, Caroline Kim, Dimple Vasavada(All new to our community, might I add!). They put together nothing short of a stellar picnic, with goodie bags, snacks, and, of course —big gold KLS balloonshung on a gazebo so nobody would miss our group in Mitchell Park. The picnic was wonderful, and we even managed to have a getting-to-know-you game for our littles so they could see some familiar faces and smiles on their first day.

Since I knew we had the IL2 picnic the next week, I took the balloons and some of the decorations to use for our picnic —sustainable and scrappy (the "L" balloondidn't survive, so I ordered a replacement).

The next week, I was joined by Vivian Vu and Pallavi Dharwada (who, even though her daughter was moving up to IL3, she still came through with her tasks - thanks!),as well as Keith and Jennifer Turner, who jumped in last minute to give us some set-up help for a picnic in Eagle Park for IL2. As you can see in the featured imagefrom the IL2 Picnic at the top of this blog, we used thesame balloons with a different set up. During this fun picnic, we got acquainted with new families,reconnected with returning families, and enjoyed snacks and popsicles.

Because Vivian was headingto the IL3 picnic later that day, and since we had a ton of snacks and drinks left over (and of course, the balloons!), I pinged Subashree, who was organizing the IL3 picnic, and asked if she wanted the snacks and balloons. She gratefully accepted and we loaded Vivian's car up with everything. And as you see in the picture,a whole different design was given to the balloons.

And now, Tesla has them in her garage;so IL4 and IL5, the balloons areyours for your upcoming picnics.

How good is it to be back in the spirit of collaboration, helpfulness and resourcefulness?

And now, after that bit of storytelling —a request for current KLS families:

I have accepted the position of Events/Gala Coordinator with the Family Associationthis year, and I have some great ideas for events.Here's where you come in: do you have ideas? Great at organizing and logistics? Super creative? Have the golden touch in decorating? Please reach out to me by email!

I'm looking for a co-chair and a great database of volunteers to call on. We don't yet know how many events we will have and how many will/can be in-person,but we'll keep you posted and have our fingers crossed.

In the meantime,feel free to suggest mini-events for your IL to your IL Representative off campus(full list of FA Representatives can be found within the Family Portal here)and get to know our fabulous families.

Happy September, all!