Carnival For A Cure Deerfield

I walked home in the pouring rain last Thursday with 27 7th grade girls.  We all walked together, talking about the last day of their seventh grade, and the first day of my summer. Nobody complained about her clothes getting wet, everyone was only worried about the carnival getting cancelled. I smiled, knowing I was doing something more than just getting a group of girls together—I was helping them learn how to prioritize different things and take one for the team—even if it meant ruining their “last day of school straightened hair” . People walked side by side with girls they hadn't talked to since elementary school. We headed to my house to begin preparing for the 4th annual Carnival For A Cure. I reminded the girls that this was a carnival to raise money for a cure, not to socialize with friends and everyone took my reminder to heart. The girls spent the next 3 hours sorting prizes, putting together games, making t-shirts, and decorating signs. After 3 hours we looked outside and I had to inform the girls that the carnival would have to be rescheduled. At first the girls were disappointed, but they soon realized that we would have even more time to make the carnival a success. We had the carnival the next Thursday, June 13th. Although we did not have as many helper girls for the actual carnival, everything ran very smoothly. The girls were paired up randomly and assigned different stations including face paint, prizes, bake sale, bozo buckets, toilet toss, hula hoop contests and much more. The girls learned how to adapt the stations to fit the needs of the child and to ensure that everyone was having a great time, even if it meant they couldn't be next to their best friend the whole time. Although there was a last-minute schedule change that resulted in a lot of families not knowing about the carnival, we had a great turnout of over 100 people. We ended up raising over $700 for JDRF in just one day.