By Jennifer Klaas
EMS PTO President
2013 ExplorerFest Chairman
It is hard to believe that the 2013-2014 school year will be starting in just a few days. At Explorer Middle School, students and PTO parents are already hard at work planning our highly anticipated, annual fall festival, ExplorerFest. This year the festival is scheduled for Friday, October 11, 2013 from 5:00pm to 8:30pm at Explorer Middle School located at 22401 N. 40th Street in the Desert Ridge area of Phoenix.
For those who haven’t attended recently, ExplorerFest is a community event that has something for the whole family. The festival features live entertainment on three stages, a food court with a variety of vendors, carnival games, inflatable activities, silent auction, face painting and photo booth, basket raffle, student art auction and more!
New this year, is our ExplorerFest Student Short Film Competition. 2013-2014 seventh and eighth grade students are invited to submit their short films for judging in our competition. The finalists will have their films presented at the festival. Deadline for submission is Friday, August 30, 2013. For more information, visit our website at www.ExplorerFest.com.
Another new feature of the festival this year is the addition of a 9-hole, glow in the dark miniature golf course. Students and families are welcome to try their luck on our course, using glow-in-the-dark golf balls.
Our live entertainment stages feature all types of music. The 97.6 KEMS stage in the food court area will feature jazz music from the EMS Jazz Band along with our headline jazz group, the “39th Street Band”. The main stage in the field will feature live performances by EMS and Pinnacle High School students as well as a rock band. The auditorium stage will feature drama, music and dance performances in addition to the finalists for the ExplorerFest Student Short Film Contest.
The festival food court will be loaded with delicious items from Sardella’s Pizza, Cold Stone Creamery, Bright Angel Treats, Cactus Kettle Corn, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Jamba Juice and Island Loco. We will also be featuring Collette’s Confectionary Creations which include, cake pops, marshmallow pops, chocolate fudge, caramel apples and other homemade candies and toffees made from scratch.
Dr. Alyssa Levin, D.D.S., of North Valley Orthodontics is our main festival sponsor and has generously donated a comprehensive orthodontic treatment to be auctioned off at the festival. For all the conditions and details, visit our website, www.ExplorerFest.com. In addition to the silent auction, each classroom at EMS will be putting together a basket of goodies to be raffled off during the festival.
We are still accepting sponsors and advertisers for the festival and invite all local businesses to consider becoming a partner with us in supporting the education of our students. Opportunities include: ExplorerFest Information Guide and ExplorerFest Program advertising as well as inflatable activity and carnival game sponsorship. Visit our website for more information. Funds raised from the festival will go directly to the Explorer Middle School PTO to help further the support of our teachers and staff and the education of our over 800 students.
Admission package and pricing can be found on our website and can be purchased online or at the gate.
Check out our website for all the great ExplorerFest information and schedules. You can find us at www.explorerfest.com or email us at ExplorerPTO@gmail.com with any questions. Hope to see you on October 11th!
