Open House Night at the Local Grade School

I volunteered/(was asked by the PTA) to host my allergy booth from the fair at the local grade schools Open House Night. I was both excited and nervous. Yes, I had hosted this same booth in the past but now I was going to be speaking to children between the ages of 4 and 10 and their parents. I wanted to be sure that I did not say anything that would frighten the children, but get the point across to the parents.

I arrived for setup at five. When I checked in with the PTA to see were to set up they informed me that they had me on the other half of the Healthy Eating Booth. As she put it, "We thought the two of you would go together." After introducing myself to Patty from the UOI Extension I quickly began setting up my items.

So once I took a moment to look around I noticed something that told me we have a very long way to go with food allergies in this school system. There was about a total of 10 booths lining the path around the gym, and at nearly every booth there was so form of food item.

The Bank had bags of popcorn, Kiwanis was passing out smarties, thirty-one bags was passing out dumb-dumbs, the Boy Scouts were passing out mixed candy, bubby gum and Frisbee's, the Healthy Eating booth was given out packs of pretzels, and the school itself was passing out ice cream cups in your choice of chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry.

But the booth that scared me the most out of everyone else was the Girl Scouts. I watched from across the room as she opened boxes of Girl Scout cookies and placed them all on a platter together to be picked over by children and their parents. Then I noticed the large fish bowl of candy on their table as well. I believe it was a prize of some sort, but it was full of bags of candy some that I could see were m & m's and Skittles and just so many more. At the end of the event they walked around with the platter trying to get rid of the rest of the remaining cookies.

Sometimes I forget that I was a very good pre-K teacher in my past. I related to the kids well, explaining that some people can be allergic to different foods and can get itchy, bumpy, swelling and that we want to keep our friends safe by finding a teacher or parent to help get them their medicine and help.

The kids were great, but the parents were my main focus. I wanted them to under stand that just because your child doesn't have an allergy they might have a friend that does and if they should be over and have a reaction we need to know what to look out for and what to do in an emergency. I relayed to them it would be helpful for birthdays or sleepovers to know what to do. I passed out quite a few of my informational pamphlet's.

And I had one mom who was just starting her food allergy journey with her son and she wanted to know more. So we talked and shared information. Just like the people at the fair, I had a number who wanted to share their food allergy stories with me, I love to hear how other people work through their food allergies.

I'm calling this years event a success in the sense that I got my foot in the door and I made an impression. I am hoping that through my continued work with the PTA to do more in the future.