Luke Tucher's
Wow. That's the one word that can possibly describe how the New Pal Community Night and Trunk or Treat went. When Mr. Carney originally said that he had 200 and 300 kids the first two years, I made a goal to hit 500 kids after promoting the event. However, following the event I was informed that we tallied 950 in kids alone, meaning there were up to 2000 people that attended my event, not including the 40+ groups that signed up to hand out candy and talk to the kids. Upon arriving at the parking lot at 5:45, 15 minutes before the official start time, I was slightly worried, as only a few trunks had shown up to begin their set-up. I was happy though, since the weather was cooperative enough to host the event outside and spread the booths out. By 7:00, despite the slow start, there were lines stretching the entire length of the parking lot, weaving through the aisles of cars. Some groups decorated their trunks with apparel and equipment representing their sport or group, and some trunks had music to fit the vibe of the event. I was very impressed with the NPJH Scare Club, who went all out with their decor, the NPHS baseball team, who had the most representatives and coaches, and the NPHS National Honor Society, who went all out with their costumes. The NPHS soccer team's trunk was also a favorite, as they had a mini soccer net and a ball to entertain the kids. As the night went on, it was literally hard to move through the crowd of kids and parents at the event. There were lines at every booth and it was so busy that trunks were running out of candy. The NPHS Golf Team had to resort to handing out golf balls. The food trucks were a huge hit too, since the parents were able to eat while their kids walked around and got candy. The "La Cocina" food truck and "Smokin' Barrel Barbecue" were big hits and the "Espresso ToGo" line was massive, since they were selling hot chocolate. A ton of people also stayed after Trunk or Treat to watch the band's performance, because the bleachers were rapidly filling up with kids and adults in costumes.
I'm hoping that someone next year takes over this project, since it definitely brought a lot of attention to the relationship between the high school and the youth community in New Pal. I really feel like my project strengthened the bond between the schools in the district and brought the corporation closer together. This project definitely brought me a lot of joy, since it was such a relief to see the massive success and approval that I garnered. My hope for next year is that someone is able to make this project even bigger and continue this year's success and astonishing turnout.
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The New Pal Sports Fair is coming along very well, and I have been working on new developments to further get my project out into the community. Rylee Horn, the community director of the Indianapolis Indians, got back with me this week and let me know that they would be able to shout out the Sports Fair, but would be unable to attend since their season would be over by the end of October. Getting recognition from a semi-professional sports team is huge for this project, and with Rylee helping me out, it's looking like the project will have a massive turnout. We are officially one month away from the big day! One month out from the New Pal Sports Fair, I already have a ton of families and groups signed up for the Trunk or Treat/New Pal Sports Fair collab. Getting in contact with all of the sports coaches is somewhat difficult, however, since many of them are not affiliated with the school like a handful of the coaches.
After a brief period marketing confusion, my project will continue to be advocated as New Pal Community Night, as to ensure no group feels left out and meeting the requests of Mr. Carney, who is directing Trunk or Treat. As of now, my flyers have been distributed to Subway, Mama Nita's, Brew 52, the library on US52, the Hancock Wellness Center, The Sweet Shop, Leo's, Strike Force Lanes, and Chicago's Pizza, as well as all of the corporation schools. Once the rebranded flyers are replaced, my project will be in pretty good shape. As the only soloist in the class, I took on the task of recreating the Future Dragons Sports Fair, done originally by Maya Stirm in 2017. While the event was very well-planned and well-organized, it failed to host a successful turnout, despite the attendance of the teams she requested. My goal was to recreate this event, but with a much larger turnout, rebranding it as the New Pal Sports Fair. This event will give kids in the community the opportunity to connect with the sports, clubs, or arts they are interested in, as well as the chance to get information about the activity and meet coaches and athletes. As a whole, this project will enforce the connection between the high school and the younger community. The New Pal Sports Fair will host every sport offered at NPHS, including boys' and girls' sports in the fall, winter, and spring. By giving future Dragons all of the options that are available to them, they will be more likely to get involved as they grow up, whether that be in sports or a club. Realistically, physical activity in some way is beneficial to children, so this fair will incentivize that. Each team will have a booth/table decorated with equipment, jerseys, posters, or whatever is brought to attract visitors. A coach and a few representative athletes from each sport will man their respective booth. This project will also be paired with Trunk or Treat, so each group will also be handing out candy to the kids, which will further encourage attendance. Pitch Day!!!My pitch day went really well! Mr. Voelz, Mr. Mitchaner, and Mr. Moore were in attendance, as well as a representative from the Hope Center and a social worker from one of the elementary schools. My presentation was very thorough, so I only had a few questions about weather and advertising. Mr. Voelz announced that he loved my presentation and was looking forward to it! He also agreed to advertise my event on his Twitter account. After my project's immense approval through pitch day, it was time to get my project out there. My first stop was Mr. Cooper's office to establish a date and time. We decided on October 27th from 6 to 8 pm in the NPHS parking lot. Mr. Cooper also let me know he would be helping me throughout the process, which was super reassuring. After this successful visit, I went to Mr. Carney, who is in charge of Trunk or Treat. He said he would be willing to partner with me to organize a huge turnout, incentivizing the event so that the attendance of both last year's Trunk or Treat and 2017's Future Dragons Sports Fair would skyrocket. He told me that each team would have to contact him to establish a booth and reserve a spot in the lot. Once I got my date and time established, as well as my partnership with Mr. Carney, my next move was advertising. Using Canva, I created two flyers: one that would grab people's attention and one that would provide people with info about the event. These flyers would pop in a way that would lure in readers and be seen from a good distance. As discussed in my presentation, I wanted to hang these flyers in popular locations around New Pal and even expand into Greenfield. After finishing up these flyers, I contacted the principals of each school in the district: SCE, NPE, BWE, NPI, and NPJH. I requested that they put my flyers in their school newsletters, which gets sent to the community and the parents of the kids in the district. This gives every parent of every student in the community access to information about my project. After two days, every principal loved and endorsed my project idea, and they agreed to put my information in their newsletters. Another group in the class is presenting the benefits of physical activity to select classes in the elementary schools, so considering the relation of our projects, I gave them enough flyers for every kid in the class. They also liked the idea of working together since our projects are closely related, so that was another success of my project. On the long day, I was able to start hanging up my flyers in the community. I first went to Brew 52, but they were closed due to staffing issues, so I will have to hit them up later. Next I went to CVS Pharmacy, but it's company policy that they aren't allowed to advertise. After a rocky start, I had a chain of successes, getting Dollar General, Leo's, The Sweet Shop, and Chicago's Pizza to hang my flyers. I will soon get Strike Force Lanes to post my flyers as well. Long shot???After brainstorming about further getting my project out into the community, I came up with a super far-fetched idea that, if it works, would result in an insane turnout that would hit my goals easily. I decided to reach out to the Indianapolis Colts, along with the Indiana Pacers and the Indianapolis Indians, and requested an appearance from each of them. From the Colts, I requested that a player, coach, staff, or cheerleader made a visit to greet visitors and share personal stories regarding the importance of sports in their lives. If I could get these major sports teams to promote my little sports fair, that would revolutionize the size of the event.
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AuthorHey! My name is Luke Tucher, a senior at NPHS in the grad class of 2023. Welcome to the journey of the New Pal Community Night! ArchivesCategories |