On Friday, October 11, a sense of anticipation filled the air as YISS got ready to spend a “Night in the Museum” for FunFest 2024. Life-size dinosaurs and volcanoes appeared in the courtyard, setting the atmosphere up for the thrilling evening ahead. Colorful planets were set into place to guide our museum visitors to the games and activities on the field. FunFest is YISS’ annual community-wide fall festival, complete with carnival games and activities, live music, a teacher raffle, tasty food, and prizes. FunFest serves as a great community-building event and fundraiser for our PTO and high school clubs. All proceeds from FunFest are channeled directly back into our school and used to support student enrichment and charitable programs.

This year’s FunFest theme, ”Night in the Museum,” transformed YISS into a museum beyond imagination. In the days ahead of the event, the YISS lobby was transformed into a portrait gallery complete with a column-flanked entrance to the “YISS Museum.” On the day of the event, students and teachers were invited to dress up in museum-inspired costumes. 

As the clock struck four, museum visitors queued up eagerly on the ramp to play games and participate in the activities on the soccer field. ES parents organized museum-themed class booths that featured carnival games. Game players were invited to play at booths inspired by the colors of Piet Mondrian, sea life, gemstones, and countless others! ES parents poured their efforts into booth decor that truly brought the museum theme to life! Game players collected stickers on their museum tour maps at the game booths.  For every six stickers collected, players were rewarded with a prize at the Museum Souvenir Prize Shop. Game players were challenged to complete the museum tour and visit all 18 class booths for a chance to win one of three amazing grand prizes! 

This year, the middle school division hosted a “Game Gallery” full of exciting games as well as a Museum Gift Shop, where items were sold. Several MS and HS club booths sold food and offered activities like slime, face painting, and water play. Students enjoyed bouncing on the inflatable bouncy house on the field. Additionally, the Teacher Raffle Booth was abuzz the whole evening with ES and MS students eagerly entering to win great prizes offered by YISS administrators, teachers, and staff.

Down in the courtyard, delicious international foods were served by vendors such as Chakraa and Masa Tacos. As always, the Dads’ Club grilled up juicy hotdogs. FunFest museum visitors dined while listening to live music performed by HS Tri-M Strings, Tri-M Woodwinds, a vocal ensemble, and the Pinheads featuring YISS staff. The Guardian mascot was even spotted bringing YISS spirit to the event!

Sustainability was once again promoted at FunFest 2024 through PTO’s "Guardians, Go Green!" initiative: reduce, reuse, and recycle! ES parents were urged to upcycle items to create their games and booth decorations. Several booths rose to the “Guardians, Go Green!” challenge, but one upcycled to the max! 3D’s “REDdy to Fizz” class booth was decked out in recycled cans and was voted the best upcycled booth of FunFest 2024. Their class won a tree to be planted on campus.

FunFest 2024 was made possible through the help of countless volunteers and our generous sponsors. We can’t express our thanks enough to the teachers, staff, room parents, grade reps, MS clubs, HS clubs, and parent and staff volunteers who made this an amazing event! Thank you to all who volunteered at FunFest 2024! We hope you had a great evening out at YISS’ “Night in the Museum!”