WAIKOLOA — Hundreds of children and their families converged on Waikoloa School Saturday morning to enjoy the last bit of summer before the first day of school on Monday.
The Parent Teacher Student Association decided to kick of the 2017-18 school year with its Back to School Bash after a one-year hiatus.
“It’s celebrating getting ready to go back to school,” said Stephanie Landers, PTSA president.
Landers anticipated 400 kids plus their families to show up at the event. Since the PTSA didn’t host a bash last year Landers and the group wanted to make this year special by reducing costs and bringing in more activities.
Activities included a waterslide, a book swap, Cake Walk along with 20 community vendors and food trucks. There was also a free keiki health fair that checked glucose and blood pressure.
Kris Kosa-Correia, principal at Waikoloa School, said the bash started six years ago. Since that time, it’s only grown.
“It gets kids on campus before school and they get to see their friends,” Kosa-Correia said.
Faith Lathrop, parent volunteer with PTSA, has one child who’s gone through Waikoloa School with two other kids still enrolled.
The bash is an opportunity for kids to see their classroom assignment and see who is in their class.
“It’s giving them that sense of community and responsibility for community, which is vital,” Lathrop said.
Lathrop described the bash as a community fair to kick off the school year on a positive note.
Lathrop’s daughter Olivia, 15, a junior in high school, attended Waikaloa School from grades first to eighth. On Saturday, she was assisting in the bash by running the Cake Walk event.
As a kid, Olivia said, the bash was about the games and meeting up with friends. As she got older it was about checking out the vendors.
“As a kid it was always super fun,” Olivia said. “I never really realized how much effort it takes to put something like this together.”
The teen enjoys being part of making the bash happen.
“It’s amazing how much the community can come together and put an event like this on,” Olivia said. “It can show students how important it is to work together and how they can have a great year.”
Megan Arakawa was at the bash at the book swap with her second-grade daughter Kailee. She said it feels like a lot of people come out from the community.
It’s not just about school events. Arakawa said there were booths there that had signups for extracurricular activities available in the Waikoloa community.
Kailee was excited to be there.
“I’ve been ready since 9 o’clock this morning,” she said.
Kailee was most excited for the waterslide.
“I’m excited to come back to school,” the 7-year-old said. “I like meeting new friends.”