The 28th annual Irving School sleepover took place last weekend at the elementary school in southeast Oak Park. Not quite 200 Irving students, roughly 60% of the student body, spent 13 hours starting Friday night into Saturday morning at the school, running around, having fun and sleeping on classroom floors. The first sleepover was started in 1998 by third grade teacher Nick Sakellaris at the suggestion of a parent and 28 years later Sakellaris is still organizing it with the help of approximately 100 volunteers.
“It’s super powerful for the kids and the teachers, and the parents,” Sakellaris said. “The parents appreciate it so much, that’s why we do it.”
Sakellaris said many former Irving students tell him the sleepovers were the highlight of their Irving experience. Parents and teachers also love the sleepover.
“It’s a good chance to get to know kids you don’t work with every day because you are working with every grade level,” said fourth grade teacher Francesca Sbarboro who is also the mother of an Irving fifth grader and who volunteered at the sleepover for three hours at the arts and crafts station. “And the kids have a lot of fun because the parents are there but they have a little freedom to hang out with their friends.”
The sleepover started at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 15. After check-in most kids headed out to the playground to play until it got dark. Once corralled back inside they chose from a plethora of activities. There was a dance party, complete with glow sticks, run by DJ Frank Dipaolo, who is the school’s custodian. The Legos station was also a popular spot as was airbrush tattoo station. Minecraft themed tattoos seemed to be the most popular, Sakellaris said.
“Kids are all walking out of here with five, six, seven tattoos,” Sakellaris said Saturday morning after the sleepover had ended. “It looks like a real one but it washes out.”
There were also craft stations, where some kids did origami, a magic show, a coloring room, and a quiet reading room.
Third grader Layla Zx had a great time.
“I spent a lot of my time in the Lego section and arts and craft,” Layla said noting that she was building machines to kill Spiderman. “I was running around the hallways like a maniac so my energy builds up but my stamina goes down.”
Kids bring sleeping bags, some also bring air mattresses, and pajamas. They sleep in carpeted classrooms segregated by grade and gender. The kindergarten and first graders finally go to sleep around 10 p.m. while the older kids often stay up to midnight. An adult volunteer is always in the room throughout the night and no sleepwalking or wandering is allowed.
“My joke is I’ll stand over you until you fall asleep,” Sakellaris said.
In the morning breakfast is served.
Layla had a bagel with berries and cream cheese, a double chocolate muffin, a croissant and strawberry lemonade.
The sleepover ends at 8 a.m.
Sakellaris said the sleepover couldn’t take place without the volunteers, including about 75 parents and 20 to 25 teachers.
“We’ve had more staff than we’ve ever had which is great,” Sakellaris said. “With this many kids it wouldn’t be possible but for the teachers.”
Some volunteers spend the entire night at the school while others work a few hour shift.
Kids look forward to the sleepover.
“The whole school was just buzzing on Friday,” Sbarboro said.
Sakellaris and his sister-in-law Kara Sakellaris, a fourth-grade teacher at Irving, spent the entire night at Irving. Once the kids finally all went to sleep they cleaned up and grabbed a few hours of shuteye for themselves. It’s tiring but they say it’s worth it just to see how happy the kids are.
“Just seeing the happiness on their face, that’s the best part,” Nick Sakallaris said.