Andover schools welcome back students with ice cream

By Mandy Coriston
Andover — Dozens of Florence M. Burd Elementary School and Long Pond School students and their families gathered at Florence M. Burd on Friday night, September 21 for an evening of snacks and games to raise funds for the Andover Regional PTA. The event included ice cream from the area’s well-known Dolly Jingles Ice Cream truck, balloon art from Janice Harrison of Pixie Painters, face painting, pizza and popcorn, and a chance to douse the school district’s principals as they took a turn in the dunk tank.
Andover Regional School District PTA Vice President Kelly Phillips was delighted with the turnout for the event. “We usually do this in June,” she said, “but we had to cancel due to weather and decided to make it a back-to-school event instead. This is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year, and I was little worried about doing it in September, but people showed up!”
With a bit of a chill in the air, it definitely felt like fall. Parents talked amongst themselves while older students played a pick-up game of soccer on the back field. Younger children climbed the playground equipment, and took turns at hula hoops and an oversized lawn bowling game.
“This is a great family event,” said PTA Treasurer Rebecca Beardon, “We’ve got a good turnout, and it’s a good way for families to get to know each other. It’s really about the whole community.”
The dunk tank was a popular feature at the event, with a long line of students waiting to turn in their tickets for a chance to submerge their administrators and teachers. Long Pond School Principal Bryan Fleming went first, followed shortly by FMB Principal Cindy Mizelle. Both administrators took a fair share of dunks, but were fantastic sports about getting soaked as a stiff breeze brought in cooler twilight air.
Wrapped in a large beach towel after her turn, Mizelle expressed her pleasure at the success of the evening.
“This is a good event,” she said, “Good turnout. I was worried we might get rain, so I kept an eye on the weather all day. But it turned out to be perfect.”
The Andover Regional School District PTA is always looking for members and volunteers who want to make a difference and enrich the educational experience for students in the district. The PTA next meets on Tuesday, October 9, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. in the library at Florence M. Burd. They can be found online at sites.google.com/view/andoverregionalpta/home or on Facebook, search Andover Regional PTA.