The Merrillville High School Orchestra hosted a Fun Fair last week to spread fun with the Merrillville Community and raise awareness for the club.  Everywhere you looked, there were fun activities around for everyone to enjoy. These attractions included an inflatable obstacle course, a bounce house, a dunk tank, a table with instruments, a photo booth, face painting, raffles, and much more. 

“Just seeing everybody have fun was my favorite part, especially when they were dunking the principals,” Merrillville Orchestra Director Mallory Julian said. “Even when I was in the dunk tank, that was pretty cool.”

There was a great turn out for the fair, and Merrillville friends and family were all around playing games, winning prizes, and having a good time. You looked one way and saw people practicing Orchestra instruments, and looked the other way to see students laughing at their principal falling in the dunk tank!

“I think events like this are beneficial because it gets everybody together, and it doesn’t matter what you are a part of, everyone is just together having fun,” Ms. Julian said.

Ms. Julian was excited to see two worlds collide when a lot of student athletes showed support at the fair.

“Seeing how many people came out, especially sports people,” Ms. Julian said. “I was like ‘Yeah!! Sports and Orchestra together!’ This school is so sports heavy, and that’s great, I love that, but I also want the music program to be recognized, and the community to be supportive of the arts, and they definitely did. They proved that if we put on some kind of fun event, they will come out.”

Junior Orchestra student Cassidy Jones believes that events like this are great to get students involved in clubs with less spotlight on them.

“These events are good for everyone because it gets more people exposed to orchestra and other clubs that they usually wouldn’t be exposed to, such as Band, Gay Straight Alliance, stuff like that,” Jones said. “It gets people to do more and be more involved in their community.”

Orchestra is always welcoming new members, and encourages students that are interested to reach out.

“My purpose for the fair was to kind of put Orchestra out there, and just let people know we exist,” Ms. Julian said. “I had a table set up with instruments so people could play them. Just showing people that Orchestra can have fun, and hopefully recruit. Give us a chance, and hopefully you have fun, and maybe decide to do this.”

“Come and join! It’s so much fun,” Jones said. “You meet a lot of new people, and you make lifelong friends. You’ll gain the skill of being good at an instrument, while creating great memories with the orchestra.”