BILLINGS — Hundreds of families will gather on Saturday for the largest fundraiser of the year for Billings Public Schools at the Montana Pavilion at MetraPark from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Watch how Billings Public Schools staff and students are preparing for Saturday Live:
Now in its 33rd year, Saturday Live has helped fill the funding gaps faced by teachers and students across the district. Hosted by the Billings Education Foundation, the fundraiser brings together more than 70 booths offering games, food, and hands-on activities. Tickets cost 50 cents each, but the impact stretches far beyond a fun day for families.
“I always like to say it's like a school carnival on steroids,” said Shelley Pierce, the foundation's development and community relations manager. "Last year we raised $63,000, and so we'd love to be able to raise more than that again this year.”
Related: 'Weatherproof': Annual Saturday Live moving indoors to MetraPark
The funds raised support classroom supplies, school programs, and teacher development. The money highlights a vital need at a time when many face increasing supply costs and shrinking budgets.
Among those depending on Saturday Live funds are the district’s five elementary art teachers, Jennifer Fogerty, Amber Dimich, Brittany Kolbe, Elizabeth Fisher, and Casey DelCostello, who collectively serve 21 schools. They often teach without a classroom of their own, traveling with a cart from room to room, and cover around 500 students each.
“If we want to provide art for kids. We have to have a budget to do it," said Fogerty, who teaches at Broadwater, Meadowlark, Central Heights, and Rose Park. "But our budget is really small. It's just the nature of what we've got.”
According to Fogerty and Dimich, the elementary art teachers in the district receive a budget of roughly $4.50 per student for the entire school year. Art supplies are usually expensive or often outdated, and are commonly reused from years prior.
"If I have a small school program, I mean, that's like $500 for a whole year, and every time I do something, I need a piece of paper," said Fogerty. "In some schools, they're even tighter with it, and they won't let us use things like copy paper without using it as part of our budget, which is totally fair, but it just gets really tight, really fast."
“It just kind of limits your scale of what you get to do because you're always replenishing what are your staples," added Dimich.
Last year, the group of teachers raised $600 with their booth at Saturday Live. Fogerty is hoping to raise $2,000 this year to introduce ceramics to her students.
“One of the things that's really critical to me is that I give students opportunities to do things they wouldn't get to do in their life, and one of those things is ceramics," said Fogerty. "Ceramics comes with a little bit more expense than things that are what we can typically provide as classroom teachers.”
Their booth lets kids buy or make custom buttons and bookmarks, turning art into something wearable and meaningful. The hands-on activity also showcases one of the many values of creative education in school.
"I need them to see that art is something. It's not dead. It's not done. It's still happening," said Dimich, who teaches at Newman, Orchard, Sandstone, and Eagle Cliffs. "I just think that the social-emotional learning that comes from it is monumental. The problem-solving that comes out of the genuine art question or prompt, they learn so much."
Saturday Live is also a major support system for student clubs and organizations, such as Skyview High School’s Business Professionals of America (BPA). Junior Keldon Lovell and seniors Chase Larsen and Colton Baum were putting the final touches on their booth Friday, setting up activities like face painting, ring toss, and “sand candy” to bring in support.
“It’s going to be super fun. We got all our stations. There's all kinds of stations around us," said Lovell.
Related: Saturday Live raises $62,000 for school groups in first outdoor carnival since 2018
The group hosts a booth each year to help raise funds for travel to competitions, including nationals held this year in Nashville. The opportunity to go can cost each student up to $2,000.
"We have three a year, if you make it to nationals. We have regional, state, and nationals, which those can build up," said Lovell.
“It did drop down because of our fundraising,” added Larsen.
Saturday Live is also a showcase of school spirit and community support. Alongside booths and games, visitors can find a fishing pond, petting zoo, rock climbing, fire truck, and SWAT vehicle display. This is the second year the fundraiser has been held at MetraPark. Booths will be spaced out, and some activities will be located outdoors this year to ease congestion inside the Pavilion.
"It's just a celebration of our schools and our school groups and just a community support for them,” said Pierce. “Sometimes you think, 'Oh, 50-cents, does it make a big deal?' But it's like $63,000 worth of 50 cent tickets is a lot of money, and it goes a long ways.”
Whether it is helping fund travel or art supplies, Saturday Live is a way for the community to come together and show support for both students and faculty to have the tools they need to succeed.
“We're so passionate about art in the schools, and that's part of why we're doing Saturday Live. We want to continue doing the things that we're doing, regardless of what happens with our budget," said Fogerty.
“The more you support them, the more you're supporting us," said Lovell. "Just have fun. Come out. Have a good time.”
