44 Community News
Ponte Vedra Recorder · October 29, 2015
Photos by Kelly H. McDermott
Kids could choose from seven different bounce houses.
Photo provided by Valley Ridge Academy
The Valley Ridge Adacemy performed for onlookers Saturday as part of the festivities.
Valley Ridge PTO hosts day of fun for Nocatee community
Kelly H. McDermott
The sun was shining and the weather
felt more like summer on Saturday as
music, cheers and laughter filled the air
at Ponte Vedra’s newest school, the Valley Ridge Academy. The new K through
8 school was the site of the Valley Ridge
Academy PTO’s second annual Fall
Family Festival on Oct. 24.
“This is the second year and generally
the idea was community building. It’s
a brand new school but a brand new
community as well,” said school principal Wayne King. “More than 50 percent
of the people who enroll begin outside
the state of Florida – so the vision last
year was to bring people together, bring
their kids, and have fun while they get
to know each other.”
A reported 1,424 people attended the
free event, which was run by 89 volunteers. Guests enjoyed a video game
truck, obstacle course, art projects, book
fair, bounce houses, pumpkin bowling,
raffles and human-sized “hamst er ball”
races. There were also food trucks representing home-grown eateries like M
Shack, Bold City Pops and Trasca & Co.
Lazzara Orthodontics, which provides
sponsorship to a number of St. Johns
County Schools, was the presenting
sponsor for the event.
“It’s a great honor to be partnered
and affiliated with schools as wonderful
as the ones in St. Johns County,” said Dr.
Jon Lazarra.
“Our parents are here, our students
are here – it’s great!” said co-chair of
the event, Tory Eulenfeld. Eulenfeld organized the event in just six weeks with
her co-chair Connie Herrell and the
help of other volunteers from the Valley
Ridge PTO.
In addition to fun and communitybuilding, the event helped raise funds
Kids and families anxiously awaited a drawing for a massive gift-basket raffle.
for the school’s playground and for local
charity the Jim & Tabitha Furyk Foundation. Those attending were asked to
bring a box of stuffing to be donated to
the Foundation. The donations will then
be included in packages of food sent
home with county students in need during the First Coast Blessings in a Backpack annual event.
Eulenfeld said the PTO will split the
money generated Saturday through donations, giving half back to Valley Ridge
Academy and half to the Jim & Tabitha
Furyk Foundation.
PTO continues on Page 45
Families could get cool as they browsed gift baskets in the shade of the campus’ large outdoor
pavilion.