By Christine Haines
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What started as plans for a community celebration for Rostraver Elementary students has turned into an impromptu service project for some of the students.
This year’s Holiday Extravaganza sponsored by the Rostraver Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization has gone through numerous transitions as organizers tried to keep up with the ever-changing COVID-19 regulations and other challenges.
Because of the pandemic, the PTO had decided to move this year’s festivities outside and developed a socially-distanced scavenger hunt. What was supposed to be a community-wide event became a scavenger hunt at the John DiVirgilio Sports Complex, but as COVID-19 cases in the region increased, even that was deemed to be too risky.
“We tried so hard to make this work,” said Melissa White, co-president of the PTO.
The event has been scaled back to a tree-decorating contest from 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 4 outside Lowe’s in Rostraver Township, but PTO members are hoping it will still bring joy to the elementary students.
“Santa will be there and they will get their treats as they drive by. They won’t be getting out of their cars,” White said.
PTO committee member Kate Crawford said the idea behind the event was to give the children something fun to do.
“We’ve been so limited this year due to COVID. All we’ve been trying to do since everything closed down in March is to find fun things to do with the kids,” Crawford said. “We need something to look forward to.”
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