Open House and Science Fair!

Friends of Gardnerville was proud to help out our students in this years Science Fair. Friends of Gardnerville provided science boards as well as some of the recognition awards for the kids. I hope you were able to see some of the amazing projects that our amazing kids put together!

Many thanks to our Parents at Valmatti for their Generous Donation of the awesome hats and accessories. Thanks to Jacaranda for their donation of the coffee and cakes. Our parent Garby Leon, snapped this shot at the open house accessory/coffee/cake sale.  We were able to raise about $200.00 towards the MusIQ program.  here is the link to the program we are trying to bring to Gardner

http://www.adventus.com/musiq-lab/

Don't forget to keep bringing in those donations!  May 6th is approaching fast!

Thanks for your support as always

Lesley Holmes
 Chair, FoG

CALL FOR DONATIONS!

Greetings Gardnerville Community,

Please save the date for "Gardnerville’s Spring Fling", Friday May 6^th 2011 at the historic Formosa Café!

In order to make it a successful night (in addition to a super fun one), we need you to solicit donations from local merchants.  It's easy: ask your child's instructors, favorite camps, your hair salon owner, your favorite restaurants, your masseuse, your landscaper, just about anyone with a business or skill. So many people are willing to donate if you just ask them. Gardner Street School wins when the items are auctioned off. Donors win when they acquire new clients!

Some donation ideas have included: swim lessons, spa and/or salon services, theatre tickets, hotel stays, cases of wine, designer clothing & accessories, free bowling, photography/portrait sessions, yoga and exercise memberships, fine dining as well as family restaurants, interior design consultations, teacher outings, you name it!  The possibilities are as endless as your initiative.

All donations turned in to the office by April 15th will appear in the Silent Auction catalog that all Gardnerville families will receive --- it's great advertising for the donors!

Attached is the Solicitation Letter as well as the 2011 Auction Donation Form to give to merchants. The forms can also be found on the Friends of Gardnerville website: friendsofgardnerville.blogspot.com.  

Tickets to this event will be on sale soon, watch for the invites!

Sincerely,

Your FoG Silent Auction Committee

2011 Auction Solicitation letter

2011 Auction Donation Form

January Happenings from the Chairwoman!

What a busy month!

We have received our NON PROFIT Public Charity Status from the IRS!  We are official!  Congratulations to us all!

We are putting together a Parent Directory  a form will be going home in the Thursday folder next week for all parents and caregivers to fill out. The class that returns the most forms will be rewarded with a cookie party sponsored by the FRIENDS of GARDNERVILLE!

We have tentatively set the date for our Spring Silent Auction of MAY 6th!  This will be an off campus evening event. Child Care will be available at the School by STAR so that adults can attend. Mark your calendars.

On our Blog you will notice that we now have an AMAZON link. For all purchases made through this link, Friends of Gardnerville will receive a portion of the sale. Please tell your friends and families that when they shop @ amazon, Shop through the Friends of Gardnerville Blog so that we get the credit. There is no added expense to them.  Great easy way to make money!

There will be an announcement for the next general meeting for Friends of Gardnerville soon, Watch the blog and the Thursday Folders!

Thanks to everyone for your support!

Lesley Holmes
Chairwoman
Friends of Gardnerville

Momentum

Quickly -
We are ON OUR WAY!
This morning's meeting proved successful! As always there were more new parents wondering what they can do to participate in the improvement and acceleration of our children's experience here at Gardnerville.  Again, I heard a parent say that their life experiences have taken them from Gardner St. Elementary and on their return were grateful for this charming school.

GARDNER ST. ELEMENTARY is a special place. Our kids are LUCKY to go here!

Through the donation of materials and time of our parents, caregivers, and staff at Gardner we are covering the costs of becoming a non-profit. We are able to receive donations and offer a tax write off for all contributions. 
Money
Goods
Skills
are all tax-deductible.

I'll see if Susan Penevolpe - Secretary, can get the minutes to me to post here for all the details!

We are also ready to start making some concrete goals. 
You know, "We need X amount to fund X project." Complete with fund raising 'thermometer' (or sunflower or pot of gold, etc) that keeps our awareness up.
This is where we need you!  We need a survey of what we as parents and caregivers want to see for our kids here at Gardnerville.  Something will be coming in a Thursday notebook in the new year. But I am asking you to begin thinking about it now.  What do you dream for this school and the kids?  What do you have to give toward these goals? Do you have 10 minutes - to an hour to help before, during or after school, perhaps in your child's classroom? Do you have a skill? Do you know someone in the community that can donate toward Gardnerville events? Perhaps time and money are both on short supply? Pick some of the items in your home that you are not using, write a list and give it to Friends of Gardnerville - we'll see if we can find a need for your items here in the school. You will get a tax write off as well!
Half day today - got to go get Iris!
Oh! I volunteered to Chair the Mardi Gras Fund raiser!  You're going to help - right?!

Elevate

Ever wish you were in inner circle inciting progress, you know, making things happen?  Here we are in 2010 nearly 2011 and the media doom and gloom - got you down? Where do you start?  Well guess what, getting together as parents is one of the most powerful and uplifting things you can do.  OUR kids ARE the future, there is no more noble cause.  Do you want to have coffee? Do you have time for a cocktail?  If we make time for these events, we will find out that tardiness costs our school a lot of money (in the range of $100 per student per tardy) from the district. That our participation in the calendar events have a huge impact on the school operations. The STAR enrichment program has a mind boggling array of programs IF we could just get enough kids (5) in a group! As parents of Gardnerville students, we need to obligate ourselves to four tasks during the calendar year.  This year, as our inaugural year, we need to commit ourselves to the idea that WE WILL hand in hand with EACH AND EVERY parent or caregiver, participate in our students education.  WE WILL understand that it is our obligation to give to this school.  WE WILL announce our participation and we will request, nay expect that our peers do the same.  Nothing is too heavy if the weight is spread among a group.  Gardnerville can elevate beyond our greatest dreams with this effort - and our children are the beneficiaries.  Is it time? Is it money? Donations? Ideas, skills?  Think about it, what do you have to contribute? Don't be bashful, step up, and ask your friends to do the same. Please consider it part of the front doors of Gardner St. Elementary.  Then write back and tell me what YOU want.  Friends of Gardnerville will meet - if you cannot be there, send an email and tell us what are your concerns, or request the minutes.  We will have meetings with Principal Urbina - be there.  Talk to Lali, Maria Elena, Christina Bulbenko, or Lesley Holmes, to name a few. Ask them how you, your child, and your involvement effect Gardnerville.  In  10 minutes or less you will find out that SOMETHING you are capable of changing will bring revenue to this school.  Asking for something AS A GROUP OF PARENTS, can actually get you something. 
I hope to bring you information, and will do my best, but a quick conversation with some of the heavyweights in this forum will bring you right to the core of understanding.  Take this to a Friends of Gardnerville meeting and we have elevated from 'kids at school,' to making things happen. This is already a great school, just watch it take off with parent involvement!! Create Elevate!
Do me a favor, send this to any parent you think might not be receiving this letter.  I have only the addresses I collected at the Halloween Carnival.  I am just one parent. I need your help to network to the entire parent community!  Do you have a great idea how I can get each and every parent's email?  It is an honor, Lesley Sue

How do you convince a cat?

Snug?
I sure hope snug is an adjective you are using to describe home lately!  Certainly, at the very least, the feeling of the covers over you in bed before the day beckons your attention.  Though one could argue that this scenario is more like torture than snug, at which I agree and urge you to get a timer on your furnace and your coffee maker. <wink>
Cats are professionals when it comes to snug.  I've been watching our cat and even a seemingly lumpy, uncomfortable spot will prove to be snug.  Despite my cajoling I cannot convince my cat to move to what I perceive as a better location.  Something smooth perhaps, with a washable blanket.
I try to talk 'cat,' I make the new spot look ever so inviting, I question my salesmanship skills. 
As the long list of cat personality traits suggests, you just can't CONVINCE a cat...they do what they do, when they do it...or do they?
I had a breakthrough the other day!  I gently nudged my kitty. Yep, just gave him a little push toward the yummy food he just asked for...and he walked over there and ATE it.  I know - who knew! OK, maybe a lot of you knew - but I am new to cat cohabitation.
Pleased with my cat whispering skills I tried my new found talent on snug location number three. You'll see the band-aid on my hand.
I guess you can't nudge snug.

Undaunted, mainly because you are not cats, I will continue to nudge you the parents and caregivers of our Gardnerville kids, to get ready to show our future corporate donors that this non-profit has 100% parent involvement.  That we are a motivated, effective team committed to the improvement and enhancement of our children's education.

I truly hope your Thanksgiving holiday was filled with the warmth of family and friends, and the many blessings that make you who you are. 
Welcome back kids, we love you and we are working for you.

In The Midst

We've turned the corner, the seasons have changed - even if our weather tries to fool us otherwise. You can't trust Southern California's weather to usher in Fall with any true storybook fashion.  But you CAN trust daylight savings and retail marketers to give us that cool, crisp, holidays are upon us feeling.

At Gardnerville it's all about the kids.  Remember what it was like to be in elementary school. I remember it clearly -some days better than others, but I digress.  It was fun, it was all about the fun. I was learning through art projects, and games, rewards, and hearing my teacher confirm that my answers were right.

Fast forward to the present as a parent, I recall my sister expressing her frustration that the education process doesn't present practical lessons like how to balance a check book or read a contract, real things that you NEED to maneuver through life.  I don't know if this is entirely true but it is food for thought.

Well, in our own small way Friends of Gardnerville is bringing one of these lessons to the kids.  Not missing the cue, we are holding a HOLIDAY GIFT SHOP.  But this isn't just a go in with Mom and Dad and help them buy gifts. The kids will control the entire process of their gift giving. From earning their money at home and in the school - yes, that means you get to have a little extra help around the house! Oh, if it were only every season...  The kids will then need to browse the catalog and budget their money to make their purchases.  Class by class, they will go to the 'store' to purchase their items and wrap them - that ought to be fun! 

Don't forget to be REALLY surprised when you open your gift during the holiday, and gush that they were too generous with their money, and write them a thank you note <grin>.

What you can do is to get into it with them.  Give them extra chores, and let them know that you see them working very hard, that this must be a fun project for them.  Reward their efforts with specific compliments about their work and effort - hey, they might do it again later FOR FREE!  Review money with them, and help them by dropping hints of who they can purchase presents for. Remember every purchase is money for our school, let them be generous.  There are of course volunteer opportunities for the Holiday Gift Shop.  Click on the VOLUNTEER tab on the blog or see Lesley Holmes.

Holiday Gift Shop - December 6-10
The lessons: earning income, purchasing power, budget, and the reward of surprise and giving.

The Holidays do begin in earnest, be safe and use the search engines to find ways to trim the stress from the holidays.  We DON'T have to do it ALL ourselves, and we DON'T have to do it by the book.

We have a long Thanksgiving break - if you want something to REALLY entertain the younger kids, you must visit the Zimmer Museum.