Dunk Tank

Teaching at an elementary school has provided me with some pretty awesome opportunities including growing a mustache, showcasing halloween costumes, having my face as the slogan of a popcorn business, as well as being a celebrity of 600 screaming (literally) young fans. This weekend marked another highlight of my experience: The Edgemont Extravaganza Dunk Tank. This is the PTA's big fundraiser they put on every spring. It's a huge community event to raise money for the school. Parents can buy their children punch passes so they can run around and participate in activities such as rock climbing, pie throwing, goldfish tossing, putting your friends in jail, face painting and much much more. One of the hot activities is "The Dunk Tank." Participants get five chances to hit the target in attempts to sink their favorite teacher into the depths of Davey Jones' Locker!

Don't worry. I came prepared. No drowning for this poor sap.

It was pretty hilarious to see kids reactions to my protective gear. "Why are you wearing floaties!?" was a very common question. My typical reply was that I never learned how to swim which most students under third grade totally bought. The water in the tank was warm, but the breeze was not. I actually wanted to get dunked most of the time to escape the chill. Kids have decent aim. The problem is they don't throw it hard enough. If the target is hit without triggering the mechanism, the child was allowed to run up and push the button. You would think the older kids are the ones to be afraid of, but they lose any sense of aim trying to throw it so hard. At the end of my scheduled turn Reesa was invited to give it a whirl. She, like many others, hit the target, but with not enough force. That got fixed with a quick push of a button: My own wife DUNKED ME!