About the PiQNics
Scheduled for May 31st, 2009 at Mills Road Park.
Directions from I75:
- Take I75 to I-275 East in Kentucky.
- Take the Taylor Mill (Route 16) exit and turn right (South) onto Taylor Mill Road.
- After about 5 miles, turn LEFT (east) onto Mill's Road. Park is on the right after about a mile.
What's a PiQNic?
The PiQNics are yearly events organized by Quentin Baker, Nichole (Russell) Todd, Robert Todd, Amy (Dirheimer) White, Angela (Crout) Mitchell, Josh Mitchell. It is a child friendly gathering of old classmates and friends. Everyone's invited, bring your family, bring your friends. You don't need to be an SK Graduate to attend, just be a friend. Guests are encouraged to bring food, drinks, paper towels, plasticware, etc. (just like a family reunion) but are not required to. If you've got games like a volley ball or cornhole, bring 'em along. But above all, bring yourself, bring your family, enjoy the company of friends.
What can I expect of a PiQNic?
Typically, Quentin will be the first person to arrive, bright and early at about 9am in the morning - and his arrival usually signifies the 'literal' opening of the PiQNic. Nichole and Robert will usually arrive shortly afterwards, we'll look at our supplies and figure out what's missing (charcoal, napkins, etc.) and make a few store runs to get them. Guests will begin arriving, food will start cooking, games will get set up and played. The shelter we pick is right next to woods with trails for kids to play in and a sand-based volleyball court. People will arrive throughout the day, and while many will stay all day long until close, most only stay for a few hours. The event lasts pretty much from sunrise to sunset.
That sounds like fun, how can I participate?
If you want to attend, just register with the site and we'll be contacting you. Or send an email to Quentin and he'll be happy to answer any questions you have. If you're coming, bring your family and kids. If you can cook, bring a dish to share. If you can't cook bring a bucket of chicken or a cooler of beverages. If you can't afford that, then don't. Just bring yourself and have some fun. It's a great way to spend a day with the kids outside and there are lots of other kids to play with - I think at the last one the count was well above two dozen kids. And we haven't had a single fatality yet.
How'd this get started?
Back in 2002, I called a few of my friends and said, "Hey, let's have a picnic in a park." I called some old classmates I hadn't heard from in a while and we grilled out and played with the few kids that were there. A few months later I decided to do it again, but this time I contacted Nichole (Russell) Todd, famous for being the Great Mother to our family of friends back in high school - she helped me get in contact with a great many classmates, and it has only grown from there.
WhAt'S WiTh ThE CaPs In PiQNic?
I'm not trying to be 733t. The first PiQNic was just a Picnic. When I the second one was a big event and since I was organizing it I decided to call it the PiQnic, cause I'm vain like that. But ever since PiQNic III, Nichole (Russell) Todd has been instrumental in organizing them so I made a further modification to capitalize the N. I put the Q in PiQNic, she brings the "N". Since then, so many people have helped out that if I were to keep doing the letter-for-reward thing the title would be PiRQNiVAJMc, and that's a bitch to pronounce.
Do I really need to sign up?
Yes! Well, no. I'd really like you to, because it makes life easy for us organizers. See, we've got a list of names that we need to get in touch with. If we can get everyone on that list to sign up here, then that'd be only one list to deal with. As it stands we've got two lists to go through for contacting everyone... and by the way, the phone calls start one month prior to the event - sign up now so I'm not bugging you, cause I don't respect the Do-Not-Call registry... *ahem*
But no, you don't have to sign up. If you could do us the favor of at least subscribing to the newsletter (there's a sign-up box on the left, just requires an email address) you'll be sent news via email. I plan to keep Newsletter issues as infrequent as possible, cause I hate spam and my inbox is an unwieldy beast that requires a priest and a virgin sacrifice to manage.
WTF?! I need my address to sign up?
Yeah, well, kinda, sorta. Those of you who've been to PiQNics past know that we usually have a sign up sheet that asks for your name and address and other contact info so that we can get ahold of you for the next one - this is just an extension of that. My goal is to have it set up so that before each PiQNic we can send out postcard invites along with emails - and in this way decrease the rediculous amount of phone calls needed to pull these off! So, is filling out your address required for signing up to the site? Yes. Can you lie? Yeah, sure, I'm not the IRS. You can tell me that you live in the white house if it makes you feel better.
