The clock strikes 6:00 pm, with the wind making silent shrieks and nightfall beginning to peer over the PPCHS football field. Soon, you’re greeted with a loud shout: “Welcome to PPCHS’ annual Fall Festival!” Now being able to see the multiple concession stands created by the different clubs from our school. But the real question is what will you be discovering?
The Fall Festival is an annual PPCHS event hosted at the school’s football field, where booths, tables, and even tents are set up and filled with various games for students, families, and anyone else to try and participate in. From 6-8 pm, the football field is filled with conversations, screams, and laughter.
However, this year in particular, there have been many inconveniences occurring that have prevented this event from happening. Recently, PPCHS has been found to have many different weather holds from the hurricane causing the 2024 Fall Festival to consistently be rescheduled. The Fall Festival is where clubs come together to raise money for their club events and charities.
Students expressed how they were saddened by the fact that Fall Festival may be canceled. Fabrizio Alcazar-Fonseca expresses, “I have never been to a Fall Festival and this was my first year going, I was sad to find out that it may be canceled since my friends had told me how fun it would’ve been,” He said, “There have been so many weather holds and it’s sad to see fun school events get canceled.”
PPCHS Freshman also aren’t too happy about the constant weather holds and complications. Pragithi Natarajan comments, “I was bummed for sure about the cancellation of the Fall Festival. As a freshman I look forward to going to new school events,” She says, “having one of those events being canceled had me saddened to see and I hope it gets rescheduled and the date stays.”
Although the Fall Festival is a big attraction to the underclassman, it is also a big moment for clubs as well, Alessandra Moreno, the president of the Forza Stefano club says, “The Fall Festival is a big moment for Forza because it helps us raise money to put into charity and allow us to gain money for other parts of our club. [Without the Fall Festival,] it’s hard to have that beginning boost for the club.”
Specific clubs also collect Fall Festival money not only for charity but also for events within the club. Emily Esteves, the historian of the Village Mentors Club expresses, “It’s negatively affecting our club because we keep having to change plans around and it’s still on our to-do list when it should’ve been off the list already, which is adding more stress to our already busy schedule. [On top of that,] when people pay to play our games, it raises money for our cause.”
With the consistent weather holds and thunderstorms it seems like Fall Festival won’t be anytime soon! Countless clubs and students depend on this for multiple reasons to start off a great year at PPCHS. Hopefully, students at PPCHS will soon find out when the new date will be for the annual 2024 Fall Fest!
