Let The Holidays Begin

Holiday Bazaar has been a Christmas tradition at AISG for years. It is an event organized by the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).

There were 18 student groups, three Scout groups, 13 high school community service groups, two Honors Society groups (NHS & NCHS), one GenCo group, and two booths from middle school and elementary school participating this year in the Holiday Bazaar event. Besides the booths from AISG, there were also vendors from outside of the school, including 62 vendors selling varieties of products and 24 food vendors.

In an interview with PTA president Ms. Walla, she discussed this year’s Holiday Bazaar in contrast to the previous year. “We felt like last year, ErSha campus was too cramped and vendors’ feedbacks were mostly complaints about how there were too many vendors and too little space. So we were more strategic this year, and we lessened the number of vendors and also invited new vendors into the mix.  We handpicked what kind of vendors we wished to have; for food vendors, we asked them to prepare different types of food.  First, we asked them to send us their menus so no booth would sell the same food items. We also reduced the number of vendors offering “service” products, because people tend to stay longer in the bazaar if they had things to buy or shop for.”

The prizes for this year’s Holiday Bazaar were better than the prizes from years before. PTA included a balanced mix of prizes that were attractive to all ages.

For instance, the themed baskets were very successful. There were various themes that have been carefully brainstormed and created; therefore, all baskets had high bids and all of them were sold.

The photo booth was donated by a generous parent, and the setups were beautiful, so the photo booth was very popular at the event. There was a sleigh at the photo booth that was handmade by Ms. Florence, an elementary school art teacher, using recycled materials.

Ms. Walla thinks that student groups can improve their games and activities, vendors can improve their way of marketing, and PTA can improve their efficiency and decrease the number of last-minute matters.

Overall, this year’s Holiday Bazaar was extremely successful. Parents, teachers, and students were all contributing, and everyone enjoyed this process. It is not just a PTA event, but an AISG event after all. It made everyone feel a sense of strong community effort and belonging.