The Mansfield and surrounding communities have been enjoying the Woodland Lawn Fete for 74 years. As popular music played in the background, Shauna Winterbottom, president of the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), noted the importance of groups like the PTO.
“This is our big fundraiser,” said Shauna Winterbottom, at Woodland Elementary School. “We also have other little fundraisers throughout the year but this one brings in the vast majority.”
“With all the ongoing cuts (at Mansfield City Schools), the PTO has become more important,” she said. “We pay for field trips, awards for children, for T-shirts when they go places and we give stipends to the teachers for supplies.”
New this year to the carnival was the Snow Cone Mobile – a canary yellow decorated mobile “van” in which visitors could get shaved ice from the operator and then pour on different flavors from the “flavor tap” dispensaries.
“Every year we sort of try to tweak (the carnival) to make it a little bit better,” said Winterbottom.
However, they do also stick to the traditional carnival favorites, she said, like the cake walk, inflatables, kids’ games, fresh cut French fries, pizza and lemonade.
“People know what to expect, they like it here and they know what they’re coming for,” Winterbottom said.
Woodland Elementary School Principal Renee Bessick said she was ecstatic the weather worked in their favor Friday with warm temperatures and sunny, clear skies.
“It makes a nice community event because people enjoy coming back every year,” she said.
PTO helper Allison Weeks has been helping to coordinate the lawn fete for the past 12 years.
“I went to Woodland as a child and used to come; and when we moved back to town, I had friends that had children here and now I have children here,” Weeks said.
Christa Pirc brought her grandson, Jace, 5, to the carnival for an evening of fun.
“It’s a tradition,” said Pirc of why she went to the carnival. “Ever since my kids were small, they used to come, so I surprised [Jace] and brought him.”
Emily Allen, community development manager for Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland, manned the Girl Scouts table with a science-themed activity.
“This is an example of one of the activities from Fetch, which is based on the PBS TV show and the Girl Scouts have a program that does the science activities with them,” she said. “With this one, they have to build a boat (out of foil) and experiment with different designs to see which one will hold the most marbles. It’s just to give the girls an example, activity wise, of what we do.”
Lexington resident Cristen Gilbert brought her 3-year-old daughter, Diem, to jump in the bouncy house and have fun playing kiddie games.
“I like to support the community,” she said. “I work at the Y so I think it’s really important that my kids are involved in a lot of these activities that support the schools and they have fun. It’s all for the kids.”
