Laramie Montessori to Host Fundraiser for Laramie Mayor’s Family
The Laramie Montessori will host a dessert auction and carnival to raise money for the family of Laramie Mayor Andrea Summerville.
The event, "We Care About Our Mayor! Fundraiser for Summerville Family" is organized by the Montessori Parent Teacher Organization and will be held Thursday, Oct 19 at the school at 608 S. 4th Street.
Kara Reynolds, a Montessori PTO member and one of the organizers of the fundraiser, said the idea for the fundraiser came after learning about the financial difficulties the family was experiencing due to medical expenses.
Reynolds said the Montessori had held a very successful fundraiser in the spring for the school and they thought they could do the same for the Summerville’s, who are part of the Montessori community.
“As we were talking about activities we could do this year at one of our PTO meetings, Tiffany Cook, the woman who brought it up in the first place, said ‘we’ve had such good success with fundraisers in the past, could we do a fundraiser for the Summerville family because they are a family at our school, they’re going through a really hard time, how could we help them?’” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the PTO brainstormed ideas during their PTO meeting in September to determine how they could raise funds and settled on a dessert auction and carnival. Reynolds said Laramie Montessori Principal Mark Crawford suggested they also bring in live music and food trucks. Reynolds said the parents at the school will provide the desserts for the auction, which was what the school had done during their “Night on the Town” fundraiser in April for the school.
“It was a lot more successful than we thought. People were very generous with making desserts and bidding on desserts so we thought we would do that again,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the carnival games will include pumpkin bowling, bingo, potato sack racing among many others. Tickets will be available for purchase at the door for children to play the games. She said Laramie Montessori received a permit to block off 4th Street, which is where the live music, provided by Alex Coffey, will be located. Reynolds said the Bear Bait Grill and Double Dub’s food trucks would be at the fundraiser as well and donation boxes would be set out for those who would like to donate more to the cause.
Reynolds said she is pleased at how the community came together to support a good cause.
“We’ve put this together in less than three weeks,” Reynolds said. “It’s amazing to see how the people of Laramie band together when somebody needs help, it’s really great.”
The carnival games will run from 5 to 6 p.m., after which Reynolds says the games will end and the dessert auction will begin. Those who aren't able to make it to the event can donate at the Laramie Montessori website.