PTO Today

Earth Day is around the corner and it’s a wonderful time to run a program or hold an event that celebrates the earth and really inspires families.

Many parent groups run cleanup or recycling programs at their schools on Earth Day (April 22) to help kids understand the message of taking care of our planet and to give families tips for living a more eco-friendly lifestyle.

But Earth Day lends itself to a variety of different programs, too. We have lots of ideas on our site, from fashion shows featuring clothing made of recycled materials to gardening projects. You can find more information on these events here.

Or, you could download our free Go Green Night planning kit and plan something fun for next month at your school. Our Go Green Night Kit has everything you need to organize and run an event that focuses on protecting the environment and saving energy. In addition to a step-by-step planning guide, promotional flyer, poster, and banner, the kit has kid-friendly activities, including some inspired by the movie EPIC, a three-dimensional animated adventure scheduled for release in May.

Curious about what sort of activities are in the kit? Check out one of our 9 fun activities, How Big Is Your Carbon Footprint..
This Carbon Footprint activity provides information about what a carbon footprint is and it helps kids learn about it with a fun coloring activity.

Also, your school will have a chance to win a free screening of the movie EPIC before it is in theaters. Learn more about how to enter the EPIC Go Green Night Sweepstakes in your free planning kit! Order yours now!

Fun runs have long been a staple for many parent groups. Now groups are getting even more creative with these runs to help them appeal to more people and raise even more funds for their schools. Here are some examples:

Color Their World
The Swans Creek Elementary PTA in Southbridge, Va., wanted to capitalize on the popularity of color runs, in which runners get “splashed” with multicolored, cornstarch-based powder while running a 5K. So the PTA gave runners the option of running a color lap at the end of its fall fun run. During this lap, parent volunteers tossed the powder onto the runners as they passed a series of color stations. Runners got free sunglasses to shield their eyes. As they completed the color lap, they were transformed into walking rainbows.

Zombie Chase
The PTA at James A. Garfield Elementary in Collingswood, N.J., asked its fun run participants to run for their lives when zombies suddenly appeared to chase them along the route. The group even added a hearse from a local funeral home and parked it at the finish line to add to the spooky atmosphere. The Zombie Chase 5K was held close to Halloween and a trick-or-treat walk was offered after the event.

Family Fitness
Even without zombies or a color lap, a PTA 5K in Lexington, Ky., drew an estimated 1,275 participants. A main draw for families was a free eight-week training program offered through the YMCA. Thirty-eight PTAs participated in the event organized by the 16th District PTA. Participating PTAs were required to create a healthy lifestyles committee. The hope is that the run will become a way to showcase healthy habits that will continue long after the run is over, says Liza Holland, president of the 16th District PTA.

National Walk to School Day is Wednesday, October 3. It’s a great opportunity for PTOs to help kids get to school in a healthier and safer way. Here’s a great example of a mom who runs a walking school bus:

When it comes to living green and promoting a healthier lifestyle for families at San Francisco’s Longfellow Elementary, Jacquie Zapata-Chavez doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk. Every Wednesday, the former PTA president leads a convoy of students and their parents on foot throughout a one-mile route to school. The “walking school bus” doesn’t have doors or produce any emissions, and children and their parents happily hop on board together.

“We have about 100 walkers so we command attention when we walk,” Zapata-Chavez says. The group meets at a fast-food restaurant parking lot around 8 a.m., but students eat fresh organic fruit donated by the school’s nutritionist. “Then we do stretches to music while we wait for walkers, and at 8:20 we start to walk and pick up students along the way,” she explains. Throughout the hike, the group chants “Longfellow What? Walks!”

Zapata-Chavez took on “bus duty” in 2009 when the principal asked her to be a traffic safety coordinator to help ease the congestion at drop-off. “We had cars double-parked, triple-parked, parents yelling at each other, kids crossing in the middle of the street….It was just awful,” she recalls. Zapata-Chavez learned about the National Center for Safe Routes to School and won a grant from the organization to start a walking school bus program.

The weekly walk has earned the school some positive attention. Local officials, including former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and a state senator, have climbed on board Longfellow’s walking school bus. The school won a $10,000 NFL Play 60 grant and an equipment donation and was visited by a few Oakland Raiders players last fall. But the best outcome of the walking school bus so far? “Not only are we fighting obesity, global warming, and traffic,” Zapata-Chavez says, “but we are teaching our children to be good neighbors and citizens of the community and planet!”

Based on the plentiful reports we’ve seen this year of parent volunteers doing great work with school gardens, many schools must have had bountiful harvests to share with their communities.

In fact, one PTA had the distinction of being featured in American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, a new book by first lady Michelle Obama. The PTA is from P.S. 107 in Brooklyn, N.Y., which started its Sunshine Garden a few years ago.

The project appealed to the first lady because it helped demonstrate that
any school, including inner-city ones with very little land, can create a garden. And it turns out this same PTA in 2009 won a PTO Today Parent Group of the Year award for Outstanding Major Project for this garden!

Also, school volunteers at Hatch Elementary in Oak Park, Ill., and Renaissance Middle School at Rand in Montclair, N.J., were recognized by the SBLI Superstar Volunteers Program (a joint effort between SBLI and PTO Today) in part for the work they’ve done in getting gardens going at their schools.

These schools demonstrate how a garden project delivers much more than delicious vegetables. The gardens serve as outdoor classrooms where kids and parents can learn about working together and supporting their communities. At Hatch Elementary, for example, volunteers come over the summer to tend the garden, and a sense of community has evolved. At the Renaissance School, parent volunteers have helped the students grow lavender, which they make into sachets and deliver to local senior citizens.

Here’s a look at some of the work PTOs and PTAs have done this week on behalf of families, kids, and schools:

• The PTO at the South Park School in Rapid City, South Dakota, held a carnival recently to raise funds for its pack and food program. Even though the school had rainy weather, it still managed to raise over $1,000. The pack and food program is for families who do not necessarily have enough food for the weekends. Children get food-filled backpacks to take home with them.
• Walking programs increasingly popular: Parent volunteers at the Ridgecrest Elementary School in Largo, Fla., coined the name Walk A Way Train for a parent volunteer program to help students walk safely to and from school each day. Parents walk with the students and report the program not only addresses the safety issue but also helps students interact in more positive way with peers as they make their way to and from school.
• Turning bad news into something good: Several Atlanta-area parent groups  reported they were reviewing their financial procedures after a news story broke that a local parent was accused of stealing PTA funds. In reaction, a parent from a neighboring group said they are making sure to have “two sets of eyes’’ on fundraiser money before it goes to the bank.  Periodic reviews of financial procedures are always a good idea and our story on financial controls offers five great tips to help that process.
• Would this work at your school? The PTA at the Euclid School in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., decided to try something new and create a school cookbook.  The PTA formed a cookbook committee that solicited recipes from parents, students, and teachers. They received 150 recipes and put it together in a book they named: Alphabet Soup: Our Euclid School Family of Recipes. The group is selling the cookbook for $10

Can you smell the fresh air and hear the kids laughing? Our stories this week highlight some great outdoor events being held around the country.

The Williamston, Mich., school district, helped along by parent volunteers, held a Walk- to-School day last week and plans to create “Walking Wednesdays’’ through the month of May. A parent volunteer reported the kids were “having a blast’’ and “full of energy’’ as they walked and socialized with friends. These events are part of a Safe Routes 2 School program the district launched this year with a $248,000 grant. The district is also doing walking school buses, participating in the National Bike to School Day on May 9, and holding a “Caught Being Safe’’ Day where students and parents are rewarded for good driving.

Who knew mulch could mean so much! The Mount Vernon High School in Alexandria, Va., did.  It just completed its 8^th annual springtime mulch sale and brought in $20,000! Run by the Combined Parent Council at MVHS, the mulch sale is used to fund the seniors’ all-night graduation party. The group sold over 9,000 bags of mulch!

The PTA at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Port Chester, New York recently held its 5^th annual walk-a-thon this month and had 500 participants. The PTA gave cash prizes to three students who raised the most money through pledges. The group also offered a pizza party to the class that brought in the most money and an ice cream party for the class that had the most participants.

The John W. Decas Elementary School in Wareham, Mass., has a beautiful new $30,000 playground, thanks to a dedicated playground committee and many months of fundraising, (spaghetti suppers, Hat Days) and seeking donations. The committee brought in a crew of volunteers who managed to assemble the entire thing (including pouring concrete!) and put down child-safe mulch in one day. Job well done!

Late last month, we wrote about the upcoming inaugural National Bike to School Day, which is sponsored by the National Center for Safe Routes to School, and will be held on May 9. The group has now opened registration for this event. Groups and individuals can sign up. It looks like parent groups could turn National Bike to School Day into a great community event that gets kids outside and focuses on safety issues. Considering the May is also Physical Fitness and Sports Month, as well as Family Wellness Month, this event could fit nicely with some bigger get-healthy goals.

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Sponsored by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition, the goal is to encourage all Americans to make physical fitness and healthy eating part of their everyday lives. Here are a few ways parent groups can take part.

Fitness Night: Organize a family event that includes fun group exercise, a healthy meal or snack, and a health fair with representatives from organizations such as the YMCA and the local hospital. Emphasize the many different ways to get fit.

Taste Test: Organize a small farmer’s market at school, inviting local growers to show off their crops. Prepare kid-friendly dishes using the fresh ingredients. Demonstrate easy ways to serve healthy foods, such as dipping sauces for veggies.

Walk On: Sponsor a low-pressure competition to see which class can log the most steps over the course of the month. Lead daily walks around school grounds. At the end of the month, encourage students to sign a contract promising to keep up their fit habits.

No, you can’t grow whole pizza pies, but you can use a pizza garden to make lessons in nutrition and sustainability come alive for students. With help from the PTO, students at Woodman Park Elementary in Dover, N.H., planted tomato, basil, garlic, and oregano on a rolling cart that can be moved around the school. The PTO secured donations from several gardening companies and a cheesemaker for the project. Students sampled donated cheese, picked up pizza recipes, and took home information about gardening. The vegetables will be used in school lunches.

We are excited to let you know that we just kicked off the 2012 Happy Healthy School Kids Program! This is a fabulous way for your group to support health and well-being efforts at your school. We’d like to invite parent group officers to sign up — space is limited.

If selected to participate, each school will receive 200 gift packs to distribute to parents at an event. Each gift pack will include:

• Family-friendly product samples
• A copy of THRIVE!, our health and wellness focused digest and savings booklet which features tips and high value coupons.

In order to participate in the Happy Healthy School Kids program, you must have a school family event planned sometime between February 1 and March 31, 2012, at which you can distribute the packs to attending parents. This can be any type of event (doesn’t need to be health/wellness focused). There is no fee to participate and you’ll be notified, via email, by early January if your group has been selected.

This program is always a huge hit with parents so be sure to sign up early!