HOLMES BEACH – With another school year here and another Fall Festival approaching, moms and dads gathered at the auditorium at Anna Maria Elementary School last week to begin the preparations.

“We see lots of new faces and that makes us happy,” said PTO Vice President Amy Talucci. There were more than 20 people at the meeting.

“The Fall Festival is a fun, family event,” Talucci said. “Kids dress up in their Halloween costumes and march in a parade from the Chamber of Commerce to the school and there is a costume contest plus a haunted house in the auditorium, a great bake sale in the hallways and a food court from the Sandbar restaurant in the cafeteria.”

Each classroom hosts a game in the back of the school and they sell water and snow cones. There is also a bounce house, a climbing wall and slides.

Talucci said the PTO needs volunteers to be cashiers and the more the merrier to keep each shift short. The classroom with the most items in the bake sale wins a pizza party. Michelle Laade, who headed the bake sale, said she would like to find someone to replace her after this year.

Stephanie Bell, who headed the outdoor rides, said they needed to find sponsors for each to the tune of $1,000 and people to run them.

Talucci said the homeroom mothers would be responsible for the games each room sponsors.

The Fall Festival is a smaller fundraiser than the Spring Fling, which is an adult fun event. The parents who volunteer to get raffle prizes for Fall Festival might hit up those businesses for the Spring Fling at the same time, although they would wait until just before the Spring Fling to collect those items.

The Fall Festival Committee will meet bi-weekly until October. The next meeting had not been set by press time.