PTO Today

With thoughts of the Sandy Hook tragedy still so painful, we wanted to share a story of two parent groups that demonstrate how school communities take care of each other.

Both groups, one a PTO on the coast of Florida, the other a PTA from Newport Beach, Calif., “adopted’’ Northeast schools that were clobbered by another devastating event this year, Hurricane Sandy.

In both cases, the parent groups posed a basic question to their community: Does anyone know of someone who needs help?

And so earlier this week, the PTO at Indialantic (Fla.) Elementary loaded up a truck with 100 boxes of school supplies, clothing, toys, and blankets from a collection it had run for several weeks, says Tina Descovich, PTO president.

Indialantic community loads up the truck headed to New Jersey.

The group sent that cargo, along with $3,100 and $1,200 in gift cards, to Monmouth Beach (N.J.) School, which was flooded in four feet of water from the hurricane.

Meanwhile, the PTA at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, Calif., wrapped up a gift card collection that will be added to $5,000 from a community assistance fund. The gift is headed to the I.S. 061 William A. Morris School in Staten Island, N.Y., reports Sue Ellen O’Connor, PTA president.

In both cases, these connections came about from a chain of people, with one person who knew another person who knew of a school that needed help.

At Indialantic, the guidance counselor spearheaded the effort by first searching online for a school. Overwhelmed by the volume of hurricane relief information, she asked some Indialantic staff if they had relatives in the Northeast who might know of a school in need. Eventually, one teacher’s family member directed Indialantic to Monmouth. The guidance counselor corresponded with a Monmouth teacher and learned about the supplies the New Jersey school needed.

The Corona del Mar PTA was also searching for a school to adopt when one of the board members piped up that she had a cousin who was a school principal in New Jersey. She contacted her cousin and discovered the school has suffered extensive damage.

“The school was devastated,’’ says O’Connor. “The computers were ruined. They needed supplies and a lot of help.’’

When an Indialantic news outfit reported on the PTO’s Hurricane Sandy effort, community members began pitching in. For example, a woman stopped by the school and donated $50.  Other PTOs in town donated goods and money, too. And a local business provided the truck and agreed to haul the donations to New Jersey.

Indialantic sent along a great photo to the Monmouth community, which offered good wishes to their new friends.

Parent groups, especially at this time of year, can teach great lessons on what it means to be a community.

In some cases, PTOs are stepping up in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Just one such story: The PTO in Closter, N.J., helped out families who were without power by throwing a pizza party. Volunteers reached out by email, phone, and word of mouth to alert families, and the town’s mayor gave permission to hold the party in Closter’s Council Chambers.

Other community events in the news include:

• Wiley Elementary in Utica, Mich., hosted its annual coat drive to help families. Keeping it low-key, parent volunteers set out the coats during parent-teacher conferences so parents in need could easily pick up the clothing. There’s no tally in for this year, but last year the group distributed 100 items, including coats and snow pants.
• The PTO at the Dansville (N.Y.) Primary School hosted its annual Fall Festival and added a twist. Kids were asked to make a contribution to the district’s backpack program. This program provides needy families with food by sending it home discreetly in children’s backpacks. The PTO received more than 100 items and reported that a last-minute request for donations for victims of Hurricane Sandy brought in another $44.
• Parent volunteers at the Riverton (Wyo.) Middle School are extending its backpack program to get food to needy families during the holidays. Parents plan to hold a “Food for Break’’ fundraiser this weekend using a loaned school bus, which will be parked at local grocery store so residents can easily drop off food items. The goal is to run this event before every extended break during the school year.

Are we ready to move on from candy, costumes, and ghosting? Looks like some PTOs are! We are already seeing news stories about groups starting community outreach and other holiday traditions.

Just a few examples:

• The PTOs of three schools in Hermitage, Penn., launched a program called Harvest Hope. The plan is to collect Thanksgiving foods and assemble the fixings in boxes that can be delivered to needy families. The PTOs started the fund with $800 and are looking for additional donations. They are working with school officials who will identify families in need, and the goal is to assist up to 100 families.
• The PTA at Valley Elementary in Poway, Calif., is running an Adopt A Family Program. Families can “adopt” another family and fulfill that family’s wish list for the holidays. At Chaparral Elementary, a neighboring school, students are assembling care packages for U.S. troops this month.

If you are looking for community service ideas, check out our story about a PTO helping out a school in need and our article about involving kids in community service initiatives.

Also, check out our File Exchange section on community service where you can download flyers and letter templates for food drives.

Speaking their minds: A PTO in Nashua, N.H. is pushing back on a service organization heading up “The Big Day of Serving’’ event, which involves more than two dozen renovation projects, including a school playground, because volunteers are required to pay a $39 participation fee. The Mount Pleasant Elementary School PTO was quoted saying it wanted very much to contribute, but it “can’t possibly ask our families who have already contributed so much toward this to now turn around and pay to volunteer their time.’’  The PTO reported it already worked at fundraising for the new playground. The event director said the faith-based group needed to charge because “The Big Day of Serving”” is a “mission project,’’ not simply a volunteer opportunity. The group is providing t-shirts and a block party and also needed funds to cover marketing and administrative costs.

PTOs adapt for working-parents population: Several PTO volunteers from Boyertown, Penn., said leaders are coming up with clever ways to boost involvement because so many families are busier than ever before. One idea: host a Saturday afternoon event (and make it compelling and fun, like a Mad Hatter Tea Party) to get more working parents to attend with their kids. Also, one PTO leader said it’s critical to get the principal to support the PTO’s work and promote its cause to parents, especially new ones who sometimes need coaxing to get involved.

Social media impact: Some PTOs are on the fence about Facebook and Twitter, wondering how these online sites can really help them. One PTA recently gave the lowdown on how Facebook helped it get the word out on a district budget hearing, enabling lots of parents to participate. “We wanted to make sure people got the word out to other schools,” said Kiki Flaig, the PTA president at Ruckersville Elementary School, in the news article.  “We just started putting information out there.” Within a week of posting, more than 1,500 people had visited the Facebook page of this PTA from Ruckersville, Va.

Who says you can’t teach character? Turns out, many PTOs and PTAs are focused on helping kids learn how to help others. This week, we found a great story about Summit Middle School in Johnson Iowa where the PTO held a Community Day. The PTO coordinated visits from several community service and nonprofit groups to give the students an opportunity to learn about how various programs work. For example, the Animal Rescue League did a presentation and the kids helped out by filling baggies with cat and dog food. Pretty simple stuff. But a great way to expose kids to community service.

So, we posted about character-building programs on our Facebook page and heard back from many parents, including Gary Parkes, a co-president of the PTA at Carmel Elementary School in Woodstock, Georgia. Parkes was justifiably proud to tell us his school is a Georgia State School of Character for 2011-2013 and a finalist as a National School of Character. The students and staff have worked on a variety of service projects; from twice-yearly blood drives and donating gently used stuff animals to collecting snacks for troops overseas.

Parkes was also recognized earlier this year as one of our SBLI Superstar Volunteers for the work he’s done on behalf of Carmel Elementary.

This month, we published an inspiring story about parent groups helping kids develop social awareness. One parent, Sabrina Coughlin of New York City, captured this issue beautifully when she talked about the service programs at her child’s school.  “I think it’s something that can’t be done in small gestures,’’ Coughlin said. “It is best learned in a steady diet of small gestures.’’

So here’s to baggies full of dog food and gently used stuffed animals. Here’s to building character, a little bit at a time.

Tell us about the community service programs at your school. We’d love to hear about them!

Judging from my news feed, things are heating up in parent groups across the country. So refreshing to read how PTOs and PTAs are making the first day of school fun and memorable for anxious kids and teachers! Here are some of the highlights:

–One Missouri PTO brilliantly sponsored a back-to-school event that let students and parents check out their classroom and local businesses set up booths to hand out goodies to connect with families. “The businesses give so much to PTO.This is our way to support them,” said, PTO Co-president Cherie Horn said.  Sounds this school is thinking ahead and starting their year off right!

–Like how this Illinois PTO recognizes that going back to school is not a picnic for students — so they start the year off with a back-to-school party!

–This PTO’s First Day Celebration invites parents and kids to the first day of school! What a great way to emphasize how parent involvement is encouraged and valued.

–One Texas school hasn’t started yet but their PTA has been busy buying back-to-school supplies, in effort to help cash-strapped parents. Bet these families will be more likely to say yes to that call to volunteer!

–Kudos to this Illinois PTO for kicking off the school year by getting kids involved in a community service program. Kids at this elementary school are learning the valuable lesson of helping others by bringing in gently-used backpacks and school supplies to send to Tanzania.

Remember, if your school is in the news we’d love to share it with other parent groups. Share your story on our Facebook page or by emailing me at lgundlach@ptotoday.com.

If your parent group or school (or even the student council or National Honor Society at your school) does any sort of hunger-fighting work, you’re going to love the fall 2011 offerings from Schools Fight Hunger.

Does your school run a food drive in the fall semester sometime? If so, you have to connect with Schools Fight Hunger and the 2011 Child Hunger Ends Here program. And if not, this is a great year to get started. Tens of thousands of schools already do this.

This year, the folks at ConAgra Foods are helping make traditional food drives even more fun and more effective. There’s a very cool free planning toolkit for food drives (we’ve seen the banners — awesome!); there’s the chance for participating schools to win very nice prizes (ultimate field trip, anyone?); and — best of all — ConAgra is making a big extra donation to Feeding America based on your hunger-fighting work at your school.

A couple of notes:

1. If any group at your school has already done hunger-fighting work, make sure your school gets credit on the national honor roll at www.schoolsfighthunger.org/schools.html.
2. Please take a minute to forward this note to your principal or club director or anyone at your school who does this kind of work. There’s no doubt in my mind that their work will be easier and more effective this year if they take advantage of all the free tools and offers. That link for the fall 2011 free kit is www.schoolsfighthunger.org/requestkit.html.

Supporting Schools Fight Hunger and celebrating the work of PTOs and PTAs who get involved is just about our favorite work here at PTO Today. Thanks in advance for all you do for this important cause.

In the spirit of Memorial Day, my tip this week is a recommended link: Could your school Adopt a Platoon?

If you’re looking for a neat service project with real world and school applications, supporting our soldiers is a great fit. Perhaps your PTO or PTA could spearhead this effort as school closes or even in the new school year. Letters from the kids, photos, and — of course — supplies do a great deal to make a very difficult job a bit easier.

It’s also the kind of project that can be set up on your own through a school parent who has served (like this PTO parent did in New Hampshire) or through your local veteran’s agent, who probably knows the names of several men and women from your town who are serving overseas.

In this week, while we remember those who have given their lives in service to our country, it’s a perfect time to think about how we can connect our school families to these brave men and women.

Talk about an amazing rate of return! The Merrill Middle School PTA in Des Moines, Iowa, gave 210 6th graders $1 each, and in just 32 days, the students had used the seed money to raise an additional $8,151.

For the project, called “Dollars Doing Good in Des Moines,” students were told to find a worthy cause to help with their dollars. They created their own projects to raise money and could choose which charity to donate it to.

One student made and sold bracelets, while a group of classmates held a bake sale. Another group hosted a garage sale to benefit an animal shelter and successfully solicited a corporate donation. Impressive!

Funds from the project were divided among 64 charities. The total amount donated, including the original seed money, was $8,361.

Does your parent group have anything planned for Earth Day? If not, think about borrowing one of these great ideas.

Eco-Fashion Show

Students modeled clothing they created from recycled materials at an environmental assembly organized by the PTA at Samuel Staples Elementary in Easton, Conn., for Earth Day 2010. The PTA’s Green Task Force planned the event, which included a student play about taking care of the earth.

Beach Cleanup

Blue Point (N.Y.) Elementary students spent a day at the shore with their families in September, but they were too busy picking up trash to lie on the sand. The PTA-sponsored cleanup, which took place at a local beach, was tied to the International Coastal Cleanup initiative. The group picked up 170 pounds of trash, including 1,373 cigarette butts and 215 bottles and cans.