Crane Country Day School will host its annual Country Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Sunday at the school’s 11-acre campus at 1795 San Leandro Lane in Montecito.
The wider Santa Barbara community is invited and encouraged to attend this “friend-raising” event. Although admission is free, tickets need to be purchased to participate in the booth activities or to buy food.
This year’s fair promises good old country fun with a petting zoo, cake walk, giant slide, obstacle course, dunk tank, face painting and duck pond. Children will stay busy at the balloon dart throw, football throw, sponge toss, beanbag toss or lollipop toss. Meanwhile, their parents will have fun checking out the used book booth or “Country Kitchen,” which features home-baked goods from Crane parents and teachers. A raffle gives fairgoers a chance to win a stand-up paddle board or mini iPad, as well as other numerous raffle items.
After all that activity, fairgoers who work up an appetite can feast on fair favorites such as popcorn, cotton candy, ice cream and snow cones, or the popular “Big Daddy’s Barbeque,” where the Crane dads grill burgers and more. If healthy fare suits you, a new food booth called the “Healthy Hut” will have vegan choices such as a kale salad, Vietnamese spring rolls, couscous pesto salad and gluten-free cookies. Thirsty fairgoers can buy fresh-squeezed lemonade made with lemons donated by Crane families. If you bring your own water bottle to the fair, you can fill it at one of several water dispensers and earn five free prize tickets.
Other highlights include a visit from the birds that live at the Ojai Raptor Center; a used sporting equipment sale; and an alumni and parent marketplace, where alums and parents will sell their own photography, jewelry, bath salts, mini cupcakes and notecards.
Musical entertainment will be provided by a number of people from the Crane community, including several students, faculty and staff members. Sue Gilbreth, a Crane parent, will perform with her bluegrass band.
For the past three years, three Crane moms have taken on the huge job of planning the fair: Ali Oshinsky, Darcie McKnight and Tiffany Gordon. Crane parent and student volunteers staff all of the food booths and fun activities, a major logistical feat that involves the entire school.
“The reason we keep volunteering is because we love it,” said Oshinsky, who has two children attending the K-8 school. “I think the Country Fair is a snapshot of Crane Country Day at its finest: parents volunteering, teachers playing music, kids running around having the time of their life. To be a part of that is amazing.”
For more information about the Crane Country Day School, contact the admissions office at 805/969.7732 or click here.
— Julia Rodgers is a Crane Country Day School parent.