Last night, Bath Elementary held its annual Fall Festival, bringing students and their families out for a night of fun — and fundraising.

While this event has been going on for years, the concept is very beneficial to the students and the school in the Bath community. According to Jane Rouse, the president of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization, raffle tickets alone have gained the organization $10,000 — quite a considerable sum of money for a small community like Bath.

The concept has been in existence for an unknown amount of time, but implementation of the concept is few and far-between in Beaufort County. If a single elementary school in a small community like Bath can raise $10,000 just off of raffle tickets, think of what a school in a bigger area like Washington could produce. In the past, that money raised in Bath, has gone toward something to benefit the students and the school — printers, field trips, and other items. Teachers can also request an item(s) for their classrooms and the PTO approves it or doesn’t approve it — which hardly ever happens, according to Pam Hodges, principal at Bath Elementary.

Not only is this kind of event a good way to raise much-needed funds for the school and its students, but it gives the students and their families something to do together that is, for the most part, cheap, fun and, most importantly, safe. In this day and time, it is very important for there to be events and activities available for families to do together. It keeps kids off the street and out of trouble and provides valuable bonding/family time.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if more schools held events like this during Halloween and even other times of the year. What Bath Elementary is doing with their Fall Festival is, in essence, sustaining themselves by bringing the community together to have a little bit of fun while contributing to the overall well-being of its children. Becoming more self-sustainable through events like this is an example every community should strive for.