News for Collegiate School Families and Friends
Spring 2015
50 Fun Fairs
by Angie Ledford Hutchison ’90, co-chair with MH Bartzen of the 2015 Village Green Fair
Our annual big event has been a favorite for generations of students and an important fundraiser.
I
t’s the 50th anniversary of the Village Green Fair! This favorite Collegiate event is the largest fundraiser for the Parents’ Association, providing fun for all ages and decades of traditions. Thanks to Collegiate’s archives we are able to walk down memory lane and see first hand the hard work and hours spent making the Village Green Fair what it is today. Our army of creative and hard working Collegiate parents has created a legacy of fun for generations. This year’s theme for VGF is Remember the Past, Enjoy the Present and Support the Future. Many VGF traditions from the earliest days continue today, and several events are being brought back for this special anniversary. In 1965, Collegiate parent Cornelia Hall, mother of Lower School Nurse
Laura Hall and her three siblings, wanted to support the school’s efforts to bring international students to campus via the American Field Service (AFS). Mrs. Hall and several other parents organized a “white elephant sale,” selling parent-donated household goods. In 1967, Hermie Powell, mother of three Cougars, took over, and the event was officially named the Village Green Fair. Mrs. Powell envisioned a carnival atmosphere with clowns, cotton candy, popcorn and games for the kids. The first $2,000 in proceeds were given annually to support AFS, and a tradition began of bringing two international students, a girl and a boy, to Collegiate each year. Additional proceeds helped the school purchase needed items including state-of-
the-art equipment like overhead projectors, classroom pull-down maps and vinyl records for the library. Today, the Parents’ Association continues to donate VGF proceeds to help with campus improvements and, although the equipment purchased is a little more modern, the spirit lives on. VGF events in the early years were developed much as they are today in that a parent had an idea and ran with it. The candy store, midway games, white elephant (now called Cougar Market) and talent show (now called Collegiate’s Got Talent) were all parent ideas that became VGF staples. Parents flipped burgers and hotdogs, took tickets for rides and painted faces. The VGF Raffle was a crowd favorite for years, offering up such fabulous prizes as
Left: A large gathering enjoyed the day in 1977. Right: The popular Cake Walk, seen here in 2014, has drawn crowds for decades.
continued on back cover