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Welcome to the official bonza bottler day® website
Enjoy Bonza Bottler Day® every month with fun and excitement! ©Gail Berger 1995
Bonza Bottler Day® Celebrations
- January 1
- February 2
- March 3
- April 4
- May 5
- June 6
- July 7
- August 8
- September 9
- October 10
- November 11
- December 12
©Gail Berger 1995 for groundhog logo and all groundhog images
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Just How Did Bonza Bottler Day® Get Started?
August 8, 2015 marked the 30th year anniversary of the first official celebration of Bonza Bottler Day, which was created by Elaine Fremont in 1985 when she realized there were no special occasions to celebrate one month. She decided to give herself a reason to have a party and some fun with this special day every month.
Ms. Fremont held a contest to name the day, which a student from Australia won. When Australians like something, they might exclaim, "Bonza !" which means "super," "great," or "fantastic." "Bottler" is slang for "something excellent." Thus, the celebration each month is now known as Bonza Bottler Day, which was first officially celebrated on August 8, 1985 in Greenville, South Carolina, where Elaine Fremont was born and where she lived.
The founder of Bonza Bottler Day, Elaine Fremont, died in a car accident on April 8, 1995 at the age of 43. For ten years she had celebrated every Bonza Bottler Day with her friends or her family.
It was her desire that Bonza Bottler Day be a day every month that friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, students, and all people get together to celebrate life by having a party or at least by making the day a happy joyful occasion.
Though Elaine has passed on, her sister Gail Berger has taken over making sure her memory and her desire that Bonza Bottler Day be a day of celebration live on. In whatever way you celebrate, we hope you, too, will enjoy many Bonza Bottler Days.
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How Did Bonzy the Mascot Get Its Name?
The Bonza Bottler Day mascot is a dancing groundhog (which has for many years celebrated on Feb. 2) that is strewing confetti and laughing, and the logo for Bonza Bottler Day is "I Celebrate Bonza Bottler Day" along with the dancing groundhog. He is known as Bonzy, the Bonza Bottler Day groundhog.
The name Bonzy was submitted by Logan from Creston, Iowa. And a big thank you to his teacher, Mrs. Laurice Heinzel, for encouraging her students to enter the contest and submit names for our groundhog. Bonzy is a name that befits our mascot as he represents Bonza Bottler Day to the world.
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Celebrating Bonza Bottler Day®
The proper way to celebrate is with a party, but if that is not possible, a person should at least wish other people a "Happy Bonza Bottler Day." People in offices, schools, etc., bring food to work to share. Even college students in dorms have lots of fun with this day. This has also become a big hit with early morning disc jockeys who love to wake people up with "Happy Bonza Bottler Day!" The day gives people in nursing homes something to celebrate every month. Religious organizations, church youth groups, schools, colleges, civic centers, offices, libraries, neighborhoods, YMCA's, support groups, some cruise ships, and individuals from around the world as well as some of the divisions of the U.S. armed forces are now celebrating Bonza Bottler Day, according to our correspondence.
Many people eat at their favorite restaurants on Bonza Bottler Day when they haven't planned a party but they want to celebrate this special day with friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or family!
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Ways to Celebrate a Fall Bonza Bottler Day®
Crisp fall days and cooler evenings add an enhanced sense of excitement to BONZA BOTTLER DAY parties and celebrations. The usual inside fall themes as well as the outdoors splendid scenes of color as the trees embrace the coming chillier weather make planning your BBD parties a breeze --- outdoor party time before the winter freeze. Bring out the apple cider, popcorn, and caramel apples. Roast hotdogs and marshmallows around a brilliant campfire. Sing the ole campfire songs and tell ghost stories. Hike, bike, jump in piles of leaves. Then carve pumpkins and roast the seeds. Eat hotdogs, pizza, or Brats, or any other take-out fare on the veranda or patio of office, home, or restaurant. Dress up as scarecrows and then picnic in the local park or school playground at lunch break. Have a neighborhood or office cookout or picnic. However you celebrate, use your Bonza Bottler Days to make and grow relationships with your friends and family.
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Classroom Celebrations of Bonza Bottler Day®
Bonza Bottler Day is being celebrated in countless ways in hundreds of classrooms for all ages around the world. Bonza Bottler Day is a favorite with many school classrooms because it provides a break in routine for the students and teachers. Bonza Bottler Day stickers can be ordered from Gail Berger, (administrator of this website at gailberger3@gmail.com -- contact for pricing and ordering) for teachers to put on papers, use for games, etc. Sometimes students write to tell us how they celebrate Bonza Bottler Day in their classroom. There is also a website that offers Bonza Bottler Day lesson plans for each month.
The following are just a few ideas that teachers have shared with us that can be worked into themes or combined with other ideas. Bonza Bottler Day can be themed as a Candy Day, Costume Day, Face Painting Day, Ice Cream Day, Free Recess Day, Be Kind to Classmates Day, Treasure Chest Day, Show and Tell Day, Collect Food and Toys for Needy Children Day, No Homework Day, Celebrating Un-Birthdays Day (for those whose birthdays fall in the summer or when there is no school), Arts and Crafts Day, Field Trip Day, Picnic Day, Nature Hike Day, Cooking Day, and the list goes on.
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More Class Celebrations of Bonza Bottler Day®
Many teachers choose different themes each month to help celebrate Bonza Bottler Day or to conclude units, which might include lesson plans, crafts, playtime, and food with an emphasis on a Foreign Country (dress up and bring foods for different countries), a Season, a Food Groups Unit, or Community Service (have various community servants visit and share or each student dress like a community servant and tell about it). Other themes include Library Day or Reading Day (have people from the community and all walks of life to come to the classroom to read their favorite book to your students), Animal Day (visit a zoo, a farm, or have a vet or animal shelter worker or even the children bring in animals), or Historical or Famous People Day (students dress like some famous person in history), Pajama Day, or Stuffed Animal Day. Make sure to include lots of fun and tasty food.
Older students like to have breakfast or just coffee, juice, and doughnuts or pastries on Bonza Bottler Day, or an end of the day or even before school begins excuse to have a party. Some high school classes go out to lunch, order pizza, bring in lunch or breakfast on Bonza Bottler Day if the class usually meets at that time. There are some schools that have breakfast once a month on Bonza Bottler Day for the parents, served by students in the lunchroom. School clubs also like to celebrate Bonza Bottler Day. But remember that however you celebrate in your classroom (or anywhere else), include some refreshment and lots of fun.
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Office Celebrations of Bonza Bottler Day®
There are so many ways to celebrate Bonza Bottler Day with Office, Medical, and a myriad of other type business groups. Here are a few ideas: Bring into work or have delivered a breakfast or lunch Takeout from a local restaurant or deli; decorate with balloons, etc. and have a different food theme each month (i.e. veggie and dip month; light snacks month; sweet tooth month when everyone brings a favorite dessert), or have ice cream specials (sundaes, banana splits, floats). Some Bonza Bottler Days have the entire office go out to lunch together. You can do other special things along with eating like one month have everyone write one or two nice things about each person in the office and have someone compile them to be read on the next Bonza Bottler Day. If made into separate cards to give to each person to keep about themselves, it can be an encouragement throughout the whole year. Another month like December, you can collect children's gifts in the office to take to children who are in the hospital or have special needs, or everyone can bring canned goods, etc., to distribute to those who are in need. Bonza Bottler Day can be celebrated any way you want by having food and fun and bringing happiness to other people.
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More Ways to Celebrate Bonza Bottler Day®
For ALL groups (including classroom and office party groups), a popular way to celebrate Bonza Bottler Days is having a number party, where the theme of the party corresponds to the number of the Bonza Bottler Day (8 for August 8, 9 for September 9, etc.) Everything is done with that number in mind. 4-4 games are played in groups of four, tables are set with places for four. Four main dishes, four desserts or flavors of ice cream, start and end the party at 4:00 a.m. and p.m. or start and end 4 minutes after an hour. Four movies, four book reviews, four skits, four songs, four door prizes, etc. Choose a number theme for your next Bonza Bottler Day party and let the fun begin!
Picnics, Cookouts, Pot Luck, or Smorgasbord get togethers to celebrate Bonza Bottler Day are great for larger groups.
Costume parties are popular where guests dress to resemble famous public figures or characters from history, songs, movies, books, cartoons, TV shows, biblical characters (for religious group parties), etc. that had something to do with the number of the current Bonza Bottler Day. For instance, on 2-2, people can come as famous pairs such as Bonnie and Clyde, Abbot and Costello, Roy and Dale Evans, Beauty and the Beast, and tons more --- Good party to play charades or similar games, which will bring lots of laughs.
Another fun party theme is a Historical Period Party where the theme of the party is a specific time in history. Food, decorating, activities, and costumes all conform to that time period. The Bonza Bottler Day party is planned completely keeping in mind The Way It Was.
Whatever you do and however you celebrate, have fun with
Bonza Bottler Day!!!
Make More Memories every time you celebrate Bonza Bottler Day®
