With the Parent Teacher Child committee (PTC) Carnival just around the corner, leaders Deb Tribby and LeeAnn Leech are busy swinging hammers and sewing.

It’s the second year the dynamic duo has coordinated the 650 volunteers it takes to put on one of the state’s largest school carnivals.

This year’s carnival will be at Prior Lake High School, 7575 W. 150th St., Savage, from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 19.

 “We spied on a few,” Tribby said of checking out neighboring carnivals. “I don’t think anyone could have a bigger one than ours.”

But for Tribby and Leech, it’s not about keeping up with the Joneses – it’s about making sure the children have something to be excited about.LeeAnn Leech sews many costumes
each year for the annual PTC
carnival. Leech fills her home
with games until the April event.

Tribby, a self-proclaimed carnival “freak,” said she and Leech put their hearts and souls into the event each year.

“The inflatables [vendor] said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’” Tribby said of the turnout two years ago.

Last year’s event grew larger, with vehicles pouring out of the Prior Lake High School parking lot and overflowing to street parking.

“Last year was even crazier. People were parking on the roads on both sides,” Tribby said.

To manage parking this year, organizers plan to have volunteers park in nearby lots or to carpool. They’ve also determined more cars can fit into the lots by using bus parking areas.

The carnival has been a fund-raiser for the elementary schools in the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District for 27 years, and it’s not only going strong but gaining momentum.

From 2001 to 2007, annual profits increased more than 150 percent, with a 1.67-percent increase in funds raised during that time.

Since Tribby and Leech took over the project, the profits jumped up 37 percent from 2006 to 2007.

Tribby said funds raised at the carnival were particularly helpful to the individual school PTC groups. The groups agreed to use the funds, typically divided by school, toward saving school programming.

The PTCs unanimously offered up funds to keep the Wolf Ridge environmental trip and fifth-grade music programs.

Still, Tribby keeps her focus off the bottom line and on the children.

“I’m the only one who has a goal,” which is to make it bigger and better than the past year, she said.

Along with the school district’s population growth, the increase in fund-raising may be attributed to the carnival’s development.Deb Tribby's father works on
crafting new games for the event.

When Leech heard a neighbor’s child say there wasn’t anything at the carnival to see, she and Tribby went to work to craft activities for older children.

In 2004, the two masterminded a haunted house in the high school’s locker room.

“It’s very fun to come up with some new ideas to intrigue the kids,” Leech said.

“A couple of years ago, I had five families tell me it was better than the State Fair haunted house, which I consider a big compliment,” Tribby said.

“We’ve had complaints that the haunted house is too scary for little kids,” Tribby added.

This year, at the pinnacle of their carnival volunteerism – as their oldest children move on to middle school – Tribby and Leech will work with others to create a “Wizard of Oz”-themed event in another locker room to cater to younger carnival-goers.

“You can’t even tell it’s a locker room,” Tribby said.

The “Wizard of Oz” theme will begin in black and white with a spinning tornado, then go Technicolor as children follow a yellow brick road.

Leech has sewn four different Dorothy costumes, along with other character outfits, so students can lead children through the tour to the Emerald City at the end.

“LeeAnn and I kind of wanted to go out with a bang,” Tribby said of the “Wizard of Oz” exhibit.

The carnival saw the most growth to date in 2006, when it boasted 26 new attractions; in 2007, another eight events made the cut.

Drumming up business

Each year, Tribby dresses in a clown costume and travels from school to school to promote the carnival.

“We marketed a lot more. We went to the elementary schools to pump the kids up,” she said.

Tribby said it’s the small rewards along the way, and feedback she hears from students, that mean a lot.

On a school visit in costume, Tribby learned one kindergartner’s true feelings.

“One of the kindergartners told his bus driver that I was a ‘real clown’ and that
he really knew his clowns,” she said with a laugh.

She also wants the volunteers to have fun and to come back for more. The two leaders aren’t worried about handing off the carnival’s legacy to the next round of parents coming up through the ranks.

“We’ve got key people in all of the key places,” Tribby said. “We’ve left a paper trail.”

Even on their way out of the project, the duo added more new games this year, and Tribby’s husband Dale, father Larry Garrow and his friend Pat Zapzalka, both from the Duluth area, have worked to not only build new game stations but to make duplicates of popular games that have had long lines at the event.

One new game this year, the Toilet Toss, will have students tossing rolls of toilet paper into, what else, toilet bowls constructed by the team.

Other new games are titled Go Banana, Monkey Madness, Sticky Ball, a Crown Craft, Bean the Bozo, Deal a Meal and Frog Hopper, to name a few.

“We really get into it,” Tribby said.

The two lead a core committee of about 25 members, which expands to lead the more than 600 people who work shifts during the carnival to pull it off. Many volunteers are middle school students, she said.

Other events such as the silent auction rely heavily on business donations of gift certificates, coupons and more.

Tribby said an estimated 100 businesses contribute annually.

Locally, Tribby said the Applebee’s restaurant in Savage has been a big supporter – partly because Tribby and Leech use the meeting spot as their “war room” for organizing carnival plans.

Their planning has even led to wait staff and other workers joining the carnival as volunteers.

“If you stop and say ‘hi’ to me, I talk you into something,” Tribby said.

Applebee’s even sponsors pre-ticket sales by offering advance ticket purchasers a free kids’ meal.

Another continued support group has been Cub Scout Pack 331, which mans the Jail and Bail game each year, locking up students in the center of the gym.

Leech said it’s been rewarding to see the carnival “be so successful. We’ve increased, obviously, the number of kids that go to it.”

The carnival started its own Web site this year. Learn more about the event at www.ptccarnival.com.

 Joanna Miller can be reached at (952) 345-6375 or jmiller@swpub.com. 

When: Noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 19