Elma students said goodbye to summer and began preparing for the new school year at the first ever Back to School Fair at Summit Pacific Medical Center (SPMC) on Saturday, Aug. 26.

Families packed the grounds in front of SPMC’s emergency room parking lot to take advantage of summer games, activities and meals. Elma Superintendent Kevin Acuff said the event was put together after the district met with numerous members of the community working to help kids.

The Elma back to school event evolved from a conversation between the Elma School District and SPMC.

“We met last spring and talked about ways to enhance relationships and partnerships among the various organizations and agencies in our community that support children and families and how we might come together in a more coordinated way to help students get off to a great start for this next school year,” said SPMC chief experience officer Lauri Bolton.

“The most at-risk students are the ones who we were trying to support, so we really just tried to bring everyone to the table,” Acuff said. “We were just trying to celebrate the idea of going back to school.”

Kids at the fair could spend time in bounce houses, getting their faces painted and avoiding brain freeze while eating snow cones whipped up by school district employees. Hot dogs, watermelon and other summer foods reminded participants that while the school year is quickly approaching summer was not quite over.

“They’ve got great hot dogs,” said Jerrie Eaton of Elma who was there with his wife, Sally, and granddaughter, Savannah Brewer. Brewer is 11 years old and is excited to make the transition from grade school to middle school. She enjoyed everything the fair had to offer.

“I like the walk-around and looking at all the booths,” she said.

The food was supplied by the Elma School District and prepared by SPMC’s executive chef, Brandon Smith and his team.

“We went through 20 gallons of drinking water and more than 200 pounds of watermelon,” Smith said.

While summer fun and food was still on the brain, Acuff said another purpose for the fair was to gear up for the upcoming school year.

Notebooks and pencils were available at the fair to increase preparedness for the first day of school. To help make things easier on parents the event was held at SPMC so back to school essentials such as immunizations could be conveniently taken care of.

“Parents especially appreciated being able to have access to primary care appointments on Saturday,” Bolton said. “SPMC providers saw a total of 55 students and gave 74 vaccines for 38 patients.”

Acuff said the district was fortunate in having the community come together to support the fair. Elma businesses donated money, time and supplies. Bolton said it is an event SPMC looks forward to continuing.

“SPMC is passionate about supporting our community,” she said.