Fun day closes out the year

By Denise Dick

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

Fourth-graders Christian Pinto and Jacob Simon, both 10, dipped their heads into bowls of cotton balls, using their Vaseline-smeared noses to pick up the fluff.

Cotton-ball fishing was one of the activities Wednesday at the St. Charles School end-of-the-school-year picnic. The annual picnic is sponsored by the Home & School Association.

The object was to transfer as many cotton balls as possible from one bowl to another in one minute, explained Jacob.

Christian got 12, and Jacob got 11.

“It felt really weird,” Jacob explained.

It was a first for both boys, although Christian recalls a year-end picnic a couple of years ago.

“We had to get gummy worms out of a bowl of whipped cream,” he said.

That tasted better, both boys said.

“We got to eat them when we were done,” Jacob said.

The cotton-ball game was just one of many at the daylong event for first- through fourth-graders. Today’s picnic is geared for fifth- through eighth-graders.

Fox Funeral Home, That’s A Wrap and Tinseltown Movie Theater, all of Boardman; Wine Collection of Columbiana; FEIC of Youngstown; and Sparkle Market of Poland donated to the event.

Barbette Cross and Lisa Emch chaired the picnic committee.

“It’s a beach theme,” Cross said. “We have a different theme each year.”

Children sported tie-dyed shirts — a different color for each grade level — to keep with the theme.

Games, music and dancing, food and a Bounce House were some of the attractions for the children.

“This is our sixth year,” Emch said.

Their daughters, Laura Emch, 10, Jordyn Cross, 9, and Emily Williams, 10, had already enjoyed the Bounce House, volleyball and obstacle course.

They most looked forward to the Adrenaline Rush: an inflatable contraption that children, divided into teams, race through.

“You climb through, go up to the slide and go down,” said second-grader Michael McGavin, 8.

By midmorning, first-grader Gia Francisco, 7, had a palm tree painted on her cheek and was munching on cotton candy. She listed the Bounce House as her favorite activity thus far.

Another station saw parent Leslie Mediate, DJ Leslie to fellow parents and kids, leading the children through dances.

Some kids “played” inflatable guitars or saxophones to the music. First-grader Gia DiVicenzo, 6, sang into an inflatable microphone.

Nicholas Spirko, 7, also a first grader, just danced. He jumped, pumped his arms, shuffled his feet and wriggled his hips to the music.

Nicholas says the moves are all his own.