ANDOVER — A former Andover Elementary School teacher is launching the first of several fundraisers aimed at raising money for the new town-run school.

Townspeople voted last year to leave SAD 44 and start their own school.

“I figure we need to start doing fundraisers for it,” Carol Emery of Andover said Friday. “I’m hoping I start something so I don’t have to do it all by myself.”

In honor of the first day of May and the fact that money has to be raised, Emery named the event “Mayday! Mayday!”

The event, which features food and entertainment for adults and free family fun and food the following day, will start with a spaghetti supper at 6 p.m. Friday, May 1, at the Town Hall.

A variety show and dance to country and bluegrass music performed by the Farmers Hill Jam Band consisting of Pete Coolidge and friends will follow the supper. The cost of the supper is “whatever donation you want to give,” and the show and dance will be $10 per person, Emery said.

Family Fun Day will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 2, at the ball field and tennis courts by Mills’ Market. “There will be lots of games and maybe a street hockey court, and we’re planning a barbecue cookout and it’s free for Andover residents.”

She also wants to hold pickleball games, but would like to have someone who knows how to mark out the course do it on a tennis court. Pickleball is a sport that combines several elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong and is played with a paddle and a plastic ball.

Friday’s variety show will feature Emery’s debut as a stand-up comedienne. “I’m going to be experimenting with my comedic career,” she said, laughing. “My sister thinks I’m either drunk or crazy, so I’m working on it. You just have to dare to do some of this stuff. Nobody knows I’m a stand-up comic, so it could be a very short-lived career. We’ll see. But it shows I’ll do anything for the school.”

Emery said that because it’s her show, there won’t be an open mic for other wannabe performers or bonafide performers. That will occur with the next variety show fundraiser she holds for the school.

She said many Andover residents have stepped forward and volunteered to restore the gazebo on the Common and the Town Hall and ball park. “Everybody in town has been really generous in volunteering.”

But her passion is for the school in which she and her husband taught parents of today’s schoolchildren when they were children.

“John and I came out of the University of Maine at Farmington in 1972 to work at Andover Elementary School,” Emery said. She taught first grade; he taught fifth and sixth grades.

“I didn’t last very long, because I started a family,” she said. “So we did our student teaching here (in Rumford), and then we heard these great things happening in Andover, so we headed up, and the minute we were up on Route 120 and looking down at the valley, we just fell in love with it. So we ended up staying and raising our sons there, so now it’s that time where we’re wanting to give back. We’ve had a good life and it’s because of the school.”

tkarkos@sunmediagroup.net