The church is seeking funds for a primary school festival

A Seymour elementary school principal recently asked the company’s board of education for permission to accept a gift from a local church.

Margaret R. Brown Elementary Principal Tony Hack told the board that the First Baptist Church of Seymour approached him late last year to see if they could help the school with student activities after COVID.

“They’ve come up with the opportunity where their membership is going to provide workers, and they’re also going to provide food, drink and cover the cost of prizes and activities,” Hack said. “So I can’t ask that we accept the donation of a certain amount of money, but general kindness from First Baptist Church.”

He said the fall festival at Brown Elementary has never been considered a fundraiser. It is a family event that will take place from 17:00 to 19:00 on October 28, only for brown students, their families, school staff and staff.

“With their help and the opportunity provided by First Baptist and with their people working the booths, our teachers and staff will have a chance to interact with our kids in a different way,” Hack said. “We hope to continue to build those relationships.”

He said if all goes as planned, the church hopes to cover all of the school’s costs. Then any extra money raised from the festival will go towards the school’s fundraising efforts for the year.

Deryk Baurle of First Baptist Church met with Brown’s administrators to discuss plans for the festival.

Baurle said there are two church members he knows of who teach at the school. They are his wife, Jill Baurle, and Justin Kelley.

“Brown Elementary doesn’t really have a PTO just because of the socioeconomic region they’re in. Also, they’re so diverse and over 400 students where English is not their first language,” he said. “Jill and I have had conversations about how having some extracurricular activities at school falls on the teachers, like the school’s fall festival, which hasn’t happened since 2018, and we thought it might be good to help out.”

Baurle sits on the mission and evangelism board at First Baptist, and he brought the idea to board chairman Doug Ewing, lead pastor Jeremy Myers and the rest of the board. They agreed that helping the school would be a good outreach.

“Our volunteers will facilitate the games and we agreed to provide the meal, so the school will sell tickets for the meals and for the games,” Baurle said. “We will offer 500 hamburgers and 500 sausages, 1,000 small bags of chips and 1,000 small drinks. The church will also provide prizes for the games, and we will also provide baked goods for the cake walk they will be having.”

Baurle said the church is looking for volunteers from the congregation, and they will have background checks done. The church is also asking for monetary donations from members and the community, as the food and drink for the meals will cost about $1,800.

“They’re expecting about 1,000 people for this event, so that’s 1,000 meals needed for Brown Elementary students and their families,” Baurle said. “It’s going to be a very big deal for them.”

Any financial contributions will help offset meals, prizes and other costs.

Donations can either be placed in the offer basket on Sunday morning, brought to the church office between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday or sent to the church. Please mark your check or envelope as being for the Brown Fall Festival. The address is First Baptist Church, 505 Community Drive, Seymour, IN 47274.

For information, call the church office at 812-522-1909 or email [email protected]