Buying a pancake breakfast could push this school’s new playground project over the edge
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POCATELLO – Purchasing a ticket to this pancake fundraiser could make the difference in this school’s effort to get a new playground.
Saturday morning, Pocatello Valley Montessori School (PVMS) will be holding Pancakes for Playgrounds, a fundraiser aimed at raising money for the purchase of new playground equipment for their toddler students. This will take place at Applebee’s, where attendees will be served a pancake breakfast by volunteer students and staff, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
How close are they to raising enough for the new equipment? According to the fundraiser’s main organizer, this fundraiser could put them over the edge.
“I really think that we could (raise enough funding),” said Nina Jones, president of the PVMS Parent Teacher Association. “With this pancake fundraiser, we’re at the tipping point.”
People who want to attend the pancake breakfast can purchase tickets for $12 each. The school has a portal set up where tickets can be purchased online, as well as on its website or in person at the door.
Before PVMS, the building at 240 East Maple Street housed a charter school, and had elementary age students. As such, the school’s playground equipment is meant for elementary age students.
But the students at PVMS are mostly younger than kindergarten age, explained Stephanie Harmon, the school’s director.
“We have some (equipment) that the smaller kids can do safely, but a lot of (it is) built for first grade and up, and so it’s a matter of safety,” Harmon said.
Currently, the school has a separate playground for the toddlers, but it doesn’t have actual playground equipment. Rather, it has some purchased and some donated outdoor toys, like Little Tikes bikes, climbers and slides, “that we just can move around, which work, but they’re not commercial grade. They’re meant more for somebody’s house.”
And Harmon said the toddler students do notice the difference between the playgrounds, especially toddlers that take after care.
“When they go outside, the teachers take the younger kids out onto the big playground as well. They just assist them, and stand close to them,” Harmon said. “Those younger kids that stay late definitely see that they’re missing out on those big toys. They don’t have things that they can independently climb on.”
On top of that, the playground equipment has grown old after being installed around two decades ago. There’s even a connector piece on the equipment that is broken. The school also has a large “spider web” area, with rope that Jones described as “disintegrating.”
And being a school following the Montessori method, which emphasizes children’s choice, it’s important for the school curriculum to allow the toddlers to play independently. But because of the safety issues that the equipment would pose for the toddlers if they were to play on it independently, they don’t have that option.
Simply put, the current equipment, “(doesn’t) really meet the needs that we have now,” Jones said.
Last year, the school held a readathon fundraiser which raised $4,000 and kicked off the project that the PTA has been saving to complete. Currently, the school is also holding another readathon fundraiser, which Jones said still has 23 days remaining and is, “already off to a really, really great start.”
One of the reasons why the school was drawn to the idea for a pancake breakfast fundraiser is because it’s, “something that could include the kids,” Harmon said.
People who go to Applebee’s, located at 1411 Bench Road, on Saturday morning will be seated and served not by a professional server, but by parent and student volunteers.
As for the menu, it will be simple and concise, where attendees will get pancakes, and then a choice of meat, a choice of eggs or hashbrowns and then a drink.
And for those who can’t make it to the fundraiser, they can still donate to the Playground Project. People can donate online through a pledge page for the PVMS 2nd Annual Read-A-Thon.
Harmon said that the funds raised by the project will go towards adding age-appropriate commercial grade playground equipment for the school’s toddlers and replacing the broken connector piece on the current equipment, as well as teacher wants and needs.
For the kids that would be able to play on new equipment, Harmon said the benefits would be enormous.
“Outdoor environments are huge. It allows creativity. It allows free play, being in nature. … It is a time where they connect with friends more,” Harmon said. “It’s not teacher-led. They do … whatever they want … as long as it’s safe and kind, but the creative outside time that they get is a very important part of every school age child,” Harmon said.