Top carrot?

A PTA sign-up form came home the other week offering me a double-sided closely-typed page of opportunities to volunteer my time.  One option was to join the school's Healthy Kids Committee, part of a districtwide effort to persuade children to eat vegetables.  A lost cause as far as my kids are concerned, but I can but dream, so I ticked the box.

The HKC has a big week coming up soon, with special events tied to local farms and the farmers' market, and a fresh produce collection for the "Squash Hunger" food drive.  Anyway, one thing the school team requires is a five foot carrot to chart the number of pounds of produce donated - a bit like those giant church-roof-fund thermometers you see around.  Guess who volunteered to make it?

But here's the thing.  Other people are vying for the job.  I know of at least two others with their eye on that carrot.  It makes me feel rather insecure about my carrot-making talents - what if my carrot is a bit weedy compared to what they could have produced, and they spend the rest of the year tutting and shaking their heads whenever I pass by?  Perhaps I should just relinquish the carrot right now...

Meanwhile, bizarrely, I've been receiving emails from the kids' former school requesting detailed instructions on how to run a tombola (and even one hopeful message begging me to come back and run it myself at an upcoming fair - Nooooooo! was my reply).  It seems I really did start a tradition there.  Would you credit it?