ARES students have a history at the hop

Talk about it

There was a time when you could say “the 50s” and most people knew what you were talking about. Images of poodle skirts, juke boxes, big frosty shakes and even “the Fonz” popped into your head.

But kids today don’t really have that sense of nostalgia. At least, most kids don’t. Those at Akin Road Elementary School might well be another story.

For 15 years, Akin Road Elementary School has held a Friday night sock hop for students and their families. The event started under former ARES principal Margaret McKernan, and has continued through her successors right up to first-year principal Laura Pierce.

The event is not a fundraiser, ARES Parent Teacher Partnership president Mary Treakle said. There is a silent auction and funds from that part of the event go to the PTP – this year’s proceeds are helping to bring technology into the classrooms – but fundraising isn’t the point of the event.

Fun is.

“This is a time for families to get out to the school together and have some fun,” Treakle said. “There’s not a lot of opportunities for parents to meet their kids’ friends and parents. It’s just a fun night to be around friends and their families.”

Kids of this generation really don’t have much of an understanding of what the 50s were all about. In order to get them into the spirit of the event, ARES staff and volunteers made a series of short videos that were shown last week. In the videos, the stars wore the poodle skirts and leather jackets and used cool words like, well, “cool.”

Whatever they did, it seemed to work, Treakle said. On Friday, when ARES opened its doors for the 15th Annual sock hop, kids and their families showed up in costumes. There were a lot of white t-shirts and blue jeans, quite a few poodle skirts and even a few leather jackets.

“Everybody was getting into it,” Treakle said.

The Dakota Valley Arts Council was on hand to do tattoos for kids, and Rainforest Café brought its mascot down for the event. There were treats and, of course, a DJ spinning lots of 50s music. One of the teachers had painted a backdrop so families could have their pictures taken, too.

“There was so much going on. It was very much an all-school event,” Treakle said.

Tags: elementary schools, school district 192, education, farmington