EDITORIAL: Back To School Party Was A Huge Success

Just Thinking Out Loud
By Gary Jaramillo

The staff and management of the Mountain Mail would like to thank all of the wonderful people who made our first annual Back to School Party such a great success. Everyone jumped at the chance to help at the party itself by cooking, serving food, picking up the grounds during and after the party, watching and chaperoning the kids in the jumpers provided by James and Amanda Gallegos and family.
Randy’s Ace let us use a much needed commercial fan to keep our cooks cool during the party. Gambles True Value let us use a very nice freezer to store our Ice Cream during the day’s festivities.
Anna Lund (owner of the San Antonio General Store) generously ordered and stored the ice cream for us until Party Day. Peter and Shelly Rice were the hit of the party when they arrived in their fabulous clown costumes as they proceeded to make balloon shaped animals and play with the children and compete in our party games. Kathleen Ocampo and Antoinette Shiells really made the kids day by working their great face painting magic all day long.
Carlitos and Amanda Vega and girls set up their family professional sound system and provided wonderful music from all genres and eras for everyone to enjoy while Socorro’s super Firefighter-EMTs shared in the fun by volunteering to set up hoses and wet the children down out on the field for a nice cooling off session. They also helped with storage at Station 3 and were instrumental in helping with the clean up at the end of the day.
All of the parents and adults at the party really got involved and made the day all about the kids. There were plenty of water guns, beach balls, bubble guns, water sprinklers, jump ropes, Frisbees and tons of other toys that the kids took home with them at the end of the day.
Noah Jaramillo and Cleto Vasquez cooked up a ton of super delicious hamburgers and hot dogs. A group of moms set up the ice cream counter and kids had their fill of many different flavors of the
yummy stuff. Anthony Peralta’s and Andy Sanchez’s families helped with tent set up and clean up on Friday and Sunday. Our staff could never name all of the great parents and neighbors who helped with the party – but we do know that they’ll all be back with us again next year to make it even more wonderful.
We thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts – and for the kids who had their day in the sun before school begins next week.
Positive Outcomes donated 60 cases of Soft Drinks to the party and some of their employees were there to help with every aspect of the party.
We were saved in the last minutes of planning on Friday by the Don Tripp family who so graciously donated the large tent that we so desperately needed to provide shade for the children.
The mayor and city declined to set up the tent for the kids. It was the only low point in planning what turned out to be a wonderful day for Socorro’s School kids. It’s puzzling how the administration and Councilors could not see their way clear to set up the publicly owned tent to shade our children in what has turned out to be one of the hottest Julys in years, but have absolutely no problem setting the very same tent up in the plaza a few times a year for adult liquor parties.
We’re hoping that will change at our 2nd annual Back to School Party for our kids.

EDITORIAL: Back To School Party Was A Huge Success