2026 Cheat Sheet
This is our fifth The Event .
If you are new to Pines or just want to know…. This is a super brief history of fundraising at Pines and how we got to The Event
We have had a history of trying a whole bunch of tiny, labor intensive, not tied to our mission sometimes, money losing fundraisers. We are talking, Wrapping Paper Sales, Golf Tournaments, Spring Carnivals, Fall Carnivals, Bingo’s (which you need a legit Bingo license- not our core business), Casino Nights and even an Oom Pah Pah German Oktober Fest. Yep…
The biggest one was the Spring Gala. Each year, for over 30 years, we had a large, fancy shindig at Kingwood Country Club. Each year it got more and more elaborate and more and more expensive to pull off. Each year there was a different theme with new invitations, new decorations, new everything. Parents weren’t coming because the Country Club was too fancy for them and we broke our backs schlepping half of Pines up Valley Manor Drive in a U-Haul, over three speed bumps, to the Club. The juice just was not worth the squeeze.
This gets us from 1977 to 2016.
2017 Hurricane Harvey hits and the Country Club is flooded and closes down. As the universe would have it, in 2016 we demoed and renoed our campus and we thought… hummm… why don’t we just do it at Pines?!? So we did! In 2018 and 2019 we had the Gala at Pines. It was wonderful. We were home
Then 2020 happened.
Then 2021 happened.
These two years of COVID we learned soooo much about what makes Pines, Pines. We learned how to uncomplicate things. We learned we are not Gala folk.
Thus The Event was born!
We are still making this up as we go along but the following pages are designed to help orient us all. This is a living document, so each year we will add and delete as we get better at this. No one teaches full blown event planning in Montessori training but what we do understand is
• that the environment is another teacher
• the importance of community
• grace and courtesy We Got This Too!
It Bears Repeating
This is an event in which we each are, first and foremost, representing Pines. This will be said many times and in many ways. Just wanted to prepare you for that. Here we go!
Parking
At parent and community events we leave as much open school parking lot space for parents as possible therefore faculty and staff are asked to please park on Cedar Knolls Drive. If you choose to park on Forest Laurel Drive or Valley Manor Drive please park respectfully of homeowner driveways.
It will be a game day decision but if the field in the backyard is dry and clean enough staff will park back there. We will make sure that you can get out!
Weather
This is a rain or shine event! We will make the best of what Mother Nature gives us. It has POURED/FLASH FLOOD style and we kept on going… Middle School flooded and we kept on going. There was the year that we stopped half way through the Live Auction and picked up 4 months later! It’s kind of our thing!
Dress Code
This is an event in which we each are, first and foremost, representing Pines. Although casual, we are all expected to dress in a way that speaks well of our school. If in doubt…don’t wear it.
Alcohol
Alcohol will be present at The EVENT . This is an event in which we each are, first and foremost, representing Pines. If you are 21 years or older and inclined to consuming alcohol you are welcome to do so. You are responsible for your own behavior. If you are unsafe or are not representing Pines in a favorable light you will be required to leave. Please do not put your reputation or ours at risk. HPD will be present if needed.
If you are under 21 you may not drink or accept alcohol from anyone. Period. If you are caught drinking you are subject to applicable local and state laws and disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.
If you are over 21 you can bring your own alcohol in a cooler or bag. There will be water provided. There will be koozies and wine openers available but again, let the parents and guests have them first.
If you are over 21 and offer alcohol to a minor, you are subject to applicable local and state laws and disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.
Our second annual Family Cocktail Competition will be in the Pavilion. Please permit families to enjoy first. This is a sip in a shot glass and a vote. Be responsible.
Social Media
While it is important that we have a social media presence during The EVENT please consider that this is an event in which we each are, first and foremost, representing Pines. Carefully consider which photos you take and are in and what is posted and what you comment upon.
Work and Pleasure and Work
The EVENT is an extraordinary event. We are very grateful that you contribute to our school’s culture by supporting Pines outside of your working hours. With very few exceptions (spelled out by the Head of School only) The EVENT is not considered work that you were hired to do so you are volunteering your time this day. Thank you.
To this end we will make every effort to balance this evening so that you can both enjoy The EVENT as a guest but understand that our biggest and only fundraiser, we need all hands on deck. We invite you to bring a friend or spouse or partner and we except that you will work and be helpful. Work will include speaking to all attendees, helping to move items won as well as tables, chairs, and cleaning up as we go.
You are responsible for the behavior of your guest.
Classrooms and Front Office
Classrooms, office and work spaces that are not in use for The EVENT are to be locked and not used by guests or faculty. What this means is that you are not permitted (of course there really might be an exception) to go into your room, hang out, or hide! If you go into your room a parent or guest may want to follow.
Bathrooms
Bathrooms for all attendees, including Faculty and Staff are located in Class 4, Class 5 and Class 6. The adult restroom and the children’s restroom with the larger toilet with window covered
The 3 bathrooms in each of the Lower Elementary classrooms and the 2 bathrooms in the Mudroom as well as the outside backyard bathroom are available. Again…do not use your key to slip into your classrooms to use other bathrooms.
End of Evening
The EVENT concludes at 11:00 pm. If we tidy up as we go along we can be gone quite quickly afterwards. If you have a child/ren at ClubHouse you will be released at 10:45 pm to scoop them up Please, do not make this an evening where only one or two people are doing everything at the end. No thank you.
Because we own the venue… the school, we need only to drag everything inside the building and lock her up and drive away. No need to schlep bags of trash to the dumpster in the dark. We can drive them to the dumpster on Sunday. A bit more on this later.
First Aid and AED
We will create a table for Band-Aids and our AED outside in the Infant Garden. Please familiarize yourself with the location. Of course 911 is our first call if needed.
Help Parents Meet Each Other
We all have name tags so make sure that you introduce people to each other. See a Board of Trustee member? Please introduce yourself and say thank you for serving the school in this manner. See someone with a tag that says Friend? Introduce yourself or introduce them to others Especially Sponsors!
Save Each Other
If you see a follow colleague “trapped” by a parent.... monopolizing one staff members time…please feel free to stop by to “help” out. Ask if the guest has had their picture taken yet, or if they are excited about the new building Talk about how excited we are to give the backyard a fresh start! The night goes by super-fast and hanging with just one or two guests can suck the energy. Keep moving.
Name Tags and Gift Bags and Dinner
You are to wear your EVENT name tag the entire evening and participate and help others participate in the activities that are inside your gift bag. While you are welcome to the extras like koozies, wine openers, Pines cups and shot glasses, etc these are for families and guests first. Same with dinner. We certainly want you to eat but practice grace and courtesy and permit guests and families to eat first.
NEW This year we are giving away little green Pines wristlets Fun!!! Please thank all sponsors. They will have name tags and there will be posters all around the school.
Bidding Numbers
Your name is linked to a bidding number. We encourage you to bid on items or experiences that you would like to win. Because “we know where you live” there is no need for you to “Check in or Check out”. On the Monday after The EVENT we will present you with an invoice and you can settle your donation with the school that week. If your spouse or guest uses your bidder number, it will be charged to you unless other arrangements have been made.
Check-in for Families and Guests
Two lines will be created for check-in. Both will be located in front of the brick wall between the two buildings outside of the fence. Guests will be told ahead of time that there is a line for guest (aka folks that we do not have their credit card information on file) and a FASTPASS line for current Pines families (aka we have their information on file).
If you are asked to help here your job is to greet folks and help them get to the correct line.
Returning this year PLINKO
Folks assigned to this game will invite guests to play. $20 gives them 3 tokens. They drop their tokens into whichever slot they wish. If their token lands in the WINNER slot, then their name goes into the “pot” for a drawing to take place during the Live Auction. The winner gets a bucket of cool beer.
NEW this year SORRY WINE GAME
Folks assigned to this game will invite guests to play. $20 gives them the choice of one bottle of wineeither red, green, yellow or blue. DO NOT OPEN THE WRAPPING PAPER!
Try to get at least 2 people to play at once. 4 would be best. Each person must have a different color. All bottles begin at START. Each person draws a card. The person with the highest card goes first and the person to their right goes next and so on.
First person draws a card and follows the number on their card in hopes of landing exactly in HOME space Each take their turn. The person who gets to home 1st with the exact number WINS the bottle of wine that was their token. The other wine gets returned to the table.
They use the Sorry cards to return their competitors to START as in the original game. Then go after other players!
BACK this year Photo Booth
This will be located in Class 4 This is FREE. It is available to Faculty and Staff but as always… our first priority is to our guests. Please take your turn in the in-between spaces. In your photos please be mindful that we each are, first and foremost, representing Pines.
Pines BINGO
There are 5 spaces on the BINGO card that cost money to complete the BINGO. We will need folks stationed at each of these places encouraging guests to complete their BINGO. Yellow are NEW.
Kitchen Backyard Plinko Bricks Shelves
The role of the teacher is to explain… enthusiastically!!! where the money for these squares goes. We assign folks to these squares who understand the value of the ask. When the family plays the game (Plinko), purchases a brick or tile or donated to the Backyard, Kitchen or Shelving fund, this teacher will initial the sticker.
Encourage guests to play the game. They can use whatever colored sticker (provided in the bags) to cover up the square that they earned. Again… in order to get a BINGO they will end up supporting one of the five categories above. Once they have completed one row they either write their names on the back or put their numbered sticker on the back and then drop it in the purple kiosk. During the Live Auction we will draw two times for a chance to win one of two $250 gift cards- One from Lowes and the other from Home Depot. We want guys to play and NOT rely on their wives/girlfriends/etc.
Dinner and Eating
Dinner will be served in Kitchen beginning at 6:30 pm. Please help guests to find their way there. All will enter through the Kitchen door in the fire lane. They will then exit out the door connecting the Kitchen to the North Classroom (soon to be Kitchen and Earth Connections). Folks are also encouraged weather permitting, to eat outside
IMPORTANT A staff member(s) will act as a “host/hostess” for this room to invite folks in and to invite folks to leave. We need people moving around to bid on items.
There will be cocktail tables around the Peace Garden and the like. There will be picnic tables in the backyard. This is a meal that is designed to be eaten whilst folks are walking about. Please do not sit and monopolize a picnic table for guests.
Silent Auction
In each bag is a page of stickers with numbers. These stickers match up with a guest’s paddle number and with their name and credit card information. Although we do not have your credit card information unless
you are also a parent at Pines, it does link to you. If you would like to bid on something in the Silent Auction or secure your spot for an Experience, then by all means place your sticker on the bid sheet.
Silent Auction closes at 8:00 pm. If you are tasked with this job, then you are guarding the doors and when it is 8 pm you lovingly kick everyone out of classrooms 5 & 6 and LOCK the doors. Your next task is to collect all the Bid Sheets and bring them to Ms. Joy and Ms. Mayra outside of the old Lower El South where checkout is located.
If a package is won by a number that is in RED that means that this person is a “Friend” and we will not see them on Monday morning like we would see “Parents” or “Faculty”. The items that coincide with RED winners will be brought to the tables near Old Lower El South so these winners can take their items home with them Saturday Night.
Unless asked for, all Parents and Faulty will be sent home on the Monday after The EVENT .
Walking About
We want folks to walk about the campus especially if they have a ribbon on their name tag that reads “Friend”. This means that they might not know their way around and not know how cool we are. Invite them to walk around the campus. Show them where Silent Auction is, where the food will be. Help them with their BINGO card. Talk about the New building and the Backyard.
7:45-8:00
If and when folks are finished bidding in Silent Auction all guests must be walked to the New building. Try, as much as possible to walk them through the Front Door.
At the base of the staircase will be a cocktail station from the restaurant Bocca. They will be serving our guests a welcome cocktail on their way into finding their seats for Live Auction. You are welcome to partake but as always…guests first. Please help folks find a seat as quickly and kindly as possible
The upstairs of the Elementary will be OFF LIMITS from 7:30 onwards to ALL.
Slides for Live Auction
There will be slides coincide with the items that are up for auction. Folks can now see photos of past winners of Chef for the Day, what the property looks like that they are bidding on etc.
Live Auction
Will take place in Lower East. We will be facing the backyard. There will be lights hanging from the trees visible in the windows behind us.
If you want to participate in Live Auction please tell Ms. Jena so we can create a paddle for you.
After this everyone is seating I (aka Patty) will invite everyone to get bidding!!! in the Live Auction since the Silent is closed. Ms. Collette and her husband Mr. Stephen (our Auctioneers) will take over from there. A faculty member will be tasked with hustling folks inside. No one should be in the Peace Garden or anywhere else
During the Live Auction we will pull for the Airbnb Raffle and the two Bingo Card drawings. In-between all of this will be auctioned off the Big Board items. We will play Heads and Tails and complete the 100 Board at the end.
Staff and Faculty will be needed as spotters and some will be asked to speak. Roles will be assigned this week. As always… Ham it up!
If you are a Spotter, your job will be to record the paddle numbers of the winning bids. When the Auctioneer yells SOLD! You will write down the number of the winner’s paddle and the amount that the item went for. There will be a clip board and recording sheet.
Heads and Tails
Silly game. Folks LOVE it. They pay $20.00 to get in. They stand up and declare if they are Heads or Tails. The Auctioneer flips a coin. If your side wins, you remain standing… if you lose you sit down or…pay to get back in. Same cost. This is played until only one remains. The winner receives a prize.
This is the work of spotters as well. This game is quick and you need to pay attention.
NEW this year- 100 Board at the end of the night
Right before we leave the Live Auction we will ask the four spotters to walk around with a bag, each containing 25 random tiles. If a guest wants to round up their donation for the night, they simply place their hand in the bag and the tile they pull is the amount that will be added to their generosity!
The numbers are 1-100. They are most welcome to take more than one!
They then will simply place their bidder sticker on the tile and in the Peace Garden…place their tile where it goes on the 100 Board! We will need a teacher or two here as well.
If we fill the board that is an additional $5,950.00 towards our Mission
Desserts
We will pass and serve bite sized desserts as the 100 Board numbers are also being passed out.
Live Auction Surprise
We will invite folks to look under their chairs for a chance to win a random gift card/prize. Faculty and staff (who did NOT hide these) are eligible. This helps us stack the chairs for Jose to pick up.
We will pump in some fun music during this “clean up” and hunt for gift cards!
End of Live Auction
We will end with instructions that music will still continue in the Peace Garden and folks are welcome to hang out and chill If someone wants to hit the road and check out they will walk around to where Ms. Joy and Ms. Mayra are and settle accounts. ONLY Friends RED numbers will need to check out. All Family and Faculty… we have their account information or you work for us!
Check Out
Is OUTSIDE of Lower Elementary South.
End of Evening
Without looking or acting like we are ending The EVENT earlier than the 11 pm end… we will slowly begin to button up the spaces that are finished. Make sure nothing is left outside the building.
Help people with their winnings to their cars as they leave
If you know a parent has their children at ClubHouse, please remind them to leave by 10:45 pm to scoop them up.
Just tie up all recycling. Secure all money and credit card information. Keep engaging with our guests and we should all be out shortly after 11 pm.
Let’s go back to Friday, aka The day before The EVENT
Friday
It is a typical school day and yet we are super mindful of preparing the campus for the next day. You are welcome to encourage your students to sweep and help clean towards the end of the school day.
AS SOON as students dismiss for carline and mindful of Extended Care we are setting up Class 4, 5, 6 and Lower El East. The entire west sides of Primary 5 and 6 are cleared and tables are arranged for Silent Auction items and bid sheets. Each table will be skirted with a black table cloth. Use shelving, covered of course, if needed. 100% make sure that the children’s bathroom with the bigger toilet and the staff bathroom are hotel quality clean. You can shove “stuff” in the tiny toilet bathroom if need be. Look around these classrooms and put away EVERYTHING that identifies a child. Teacher notes, journals, personal items. Our guests will be reading everything that they see. These two classrooms need music. We have purchased a handful of Bluetooth speakers. We want music in all the spaces.
NEW Class 4 will be prepped for the photo booth. We are making this space warm and welcoming with décor and music. Same story about the bathrooms and personal items.
NEW Old Lower North will be prepped for a dining area. We are making this space warm and welcoming with décor and music. Same story about the bathrooms and personal items.
Lower Elementary East will be prepped for Live Auction. A temporary wall be added to block off their kitchen area. Chairs will be placed facing the backyard. ALL the chairs will arrive on Friday afternoon
The Kitchen will be prepped for the service line for dinner.
We will assign jobs for Friday. The more we get done on Friday the easier Saturday will be!
Saturday
Everyone staff member who is attending The EVENT (except the kitchen who has their own schedule because the food arrives) needs to be parked and ready to finish setting up at 4:00 pm. If you have a guest who would like to help, they can come but… they are a guest.
On Saturday we need the outside moments set up. Emcee- Brian, photo booth, thank you signage, food set up, check in of guests who will arrive “too” early, etc. It will go by fast!!!
The school will be open all day if, for some reason, you want to come by earlier.
Sunday
The cleaners will be at Pines to clean Classes 4, 5 & 6, Lower El, Mudroom and Kitchen The alarm will be turned off from 11 until 4 on Sunday if you want to reset your room.
NEW this year-
We have storage at PINES!!!! No need to drive out to Northpark.
Thank you for everything that you have done and what you will do to make this possible.
You all are AMAZING!!!!
GO PINES!
This is…as always… our best guess. Please be very flexible as contents may shift during our flight!