We had similar problems. We went with an event planning company that provided the game booths (10 booths @ $150/booth) includes set up/take down. We also went with In-n-Out truck to cut out all parent volunteers for cooking/food service...plus it is quite an attraction itself. We wanted to keep expenses to a minimum for families so we charged $10 for a family of 5 (wristbands) plus they had to pay for any food. Band came to sell snowcones and we ran a bake sale in addition to In-n-out. So the only volunteers needed were to run the 10 game booths plus the ticket booth and bake sale...way, way less than needed in the past. Huge turn out and lots of happy parents/students. Oh...we also scored a jump house and rock climbing wall (which came with their own volunteers to run them) as we found out a parent runs a summer camp and had the equipment. Normally he rents it out for events but we traded a banner in the MPR which normally costs sponsors in exchange for his "donation of services." Put the word out in community to see what is available. If your school normally sells banner space or ad space, your administration might be willing to work with you to make a deal!
This is a great time of year for a chili cookoff. Consider adding that! People can bring crock pots of chili and you can either serve in bowls or small cups so people can sample them and then vote on a fave.
We did a schoolwide (small school of 250 kids) donut on a string eating "contest". We divided people into groups and the fastest group to eat all their donuts won. It was fun to watch the older kids help the little kids!
Thanks everyone! We have to stay away from the games as well, when you have a small amount of parents and teachers that are willing to help, it's just too hard. Last year 3/4 of our second "shift" was a no show. We ended up closing down games etc.
We had a DJ last year with a costume contest, pumpkin decorating contest, haunted house on our stage, games and food. We did wristbands and sold for $6.00 a piece. We sold over 200 wristbands. This year we would like to get rid of games.
And check out these files on our File Exchange. There are templates for flyers and letters to vendors (for donations) for Fall Festivals as well as docs with ideas for games and events:
For our harvest festival we get a pumpkin for each student(plus a couple extras) and have each class come in one by one to decorate them. This is a during school event so the teachers help supervise thier own classes, which is a big help. After they decorate thier pumpkin we have temporary tattoos, a small goodie bag, cookies and juice.
I enjoy doing a small event like this, it's simple and easy. We are also a very low income school so giving each child a pumpkin really helps out a lot of families, the pumpkins are small, a little smaller than a basketball, so that they are easy to transport home. We ask local pumpkin patches for donations of pumpkins, even if they only donate 30 pumpkins after we go to 3 or 4 our order has almost been filled. We do ask parents to come in and help during thier childs class time, they are allowed to bring in thier other children so I think that helps most of them. As a thank you the siblings of school children get a pumpkin and the other goodies too.
*on a quick side note, try to keep decorating easy, we tried paint and it got super messy really quick and some teachers were upset, we now stick to stickers and we are thinking about glue on items*
