By MACKENZEE SIMMS | Staff Writer 

HELENA – With food trucks, shaved ice and balloon art, Helena Elementary celebrated the start of the school year in style with the Back to School Bash on Friday, Aug. 9. Hosted by the HES Parent Teacher Organization, every HES student in attendance enjoyed a night of joy with their families.

“(The Back to School Bash) is just a fun, easy event to get to know our families a little bit better, be able to spend time with classmates and friends and just get excited about the school year starting,” said PTO President Heather Leon.

While the event is meant to be a lot of fun for every family in attendance, it also serves a secondary purpose: to familiarize new students with the Helena community to ease their transition in a new setting.

“The primary goal of the Back to School Bash is to just get more familiar with (the school), especially for our new kindergarten students and families,” Leon said. “It’s just a chance for all of our families to meet each other and be able to talk and a chance to meet any school staff that might be there at the bash.”

In addition to introducing kindergarteners to a new school, all HES students were able to enjoy the newly-installed playground equipment. The PTO recently replaced a rope bridge and eight new swing sets.

“It was just time for some new and updated equipment,” Leon said. “It happened at the perfect time. The day before school started it was all installed, so it just worked out perfectly.”

Beyond chatting with other families and enjoying the new playground equipment, guests at the Back to School Bash could engage in a variety of activities. At one booth, the Helena Belles delighted children with a variety of temporary tattoos. At another, magician Mr. Larry amazed kids with his ability to manipulate balloon animals.

“(Mr. Larry) is a magician that comes to our school and does character building lessons and magic shows with all of our students throughout the year,” Leon said. “Especially with our kindergartners, they might never have met him before. It’s the perfect opportunity for them to see him for the first time and get to interact with him. He makes this wonderful balloon art. He and his wife both are just incredibly talented.”

On a personal note, Leon shared that this year was her sixth and final year with Helena Elementary School and her favorite part of the night was watching all of the families interacting with one another.

“It’s just sweet to see the older second grade families interacting with and even mentoring kindergarten families,” Leon said. “I loved just watching that tradition pass on through our school of great advice and wonderful support from other families that have been there.”