PTO Today

Looking for a way to promote fitness and raise a few bucks at the same time? Parent groups across the country hosted 5K runs in fall 2010, drawing local fitness fanatics and casual joggers alike. Many groups work with race promoters or running clubs that help with event logistics. Here are some of the ways PTOs made their events stand apart from the pack of other charity runs.

Clever Names

A catchy name can go a long way in marketing an event. Many parent groups find inspiration from their school mascots. The Roaring Lion Run, held in Adamstown, Md., benefited the Carroll Manor Elementary PTA and featured an appearance by the lion mascot. A Sunbury, Ohio, race called the Big Nut Strut raised money for three PTOs in the Big Walnut Local School District. Texas runners could join the Cougar Prowl, organized by the Running Brushy Middle School PTA in Cedar Park, or the Hexter Howl, benefiting Hexter Elementary in Dallas.

Student Runners

It also helps to offer students some incentives to participate. A smoothie company sponsored the Roaring Lion Run at Carroll Manor Elementary. The PTA leveraged this sponsorship to encourage student involvement: The class with the highest rate of participation in the event won a free smoothie party.

The Wake County, N.C., PTA Council offered grants to PTAs at schools with the highest participation in its race, the Healthy Lifestyles 5K. It also gave away scholarships from a tutoring company that sponsored the event.

Interested in planning your own run/walk fundraiser? Read “Organizing a Fun Run” for tips.

How many times have your kids said to you, “Hey mom, check out this funny video on YouTube?” Now it’s your turn to share a fun video with your kids, your friends, family members and teachers at your kids’ school…

The neat (no pun intended) thing is that by sharing this video you’ll be helping schools that are struggling financially get the cleaning supplies they need. Bounty is going to make a one-time donation of $200,000 worth of paper towels (retail value) to schools in need if they get 2,000,000 views by Jan. 31st (with distribution help by PTO Today). So we encourage you “to bring it” – share the video and help schools around the country. Kind of refreshing to see brands with a sense of humor and heart, isn’t it?

Very practical tip for you this week: If your group hasn’t signed up for our early 2011 “Healthy School Kids” program yet, you should. Here’s a link for more info and to sign up:
http://www.ptotoday.com/healthy-school-kids-samples

This is our second year for HSK, and it was one of our most popular offerings last year. If you’re having a family event anytime between January 19th and the end of March (especially if it’s an event with any kind of healthy or physical activity focus), then our HSK program can make that event even better with great giveaways for your parents.

Each family packet will include free samples of healthier family products as well as a copy of our “Thrive” mini-mag with great tips for healthier families and even more coupons and special offers for your parents. So many PTO and PTA groups these days are putting a greater emphasis on healthy living, whether it’s educating the kids on food choices, or emphasizing physical fitness, or holding fun, active family events as alternatives to TV watching. Our Healthy School Kids program is a perfect addition to those efforts. Hope your group and your parents can take advantage. (Note: Quantities are limited, so be sure to sign up right away.)

That link again is http://www.ptotoday.com/healthy-school-kids-samples.

A trend is emerging in schools that is very encouraging: parent groups are advocating for healthier schools. Whether it’s getting kids more active, promoting healthy eating, or sponsoring healthier family events and fundraisers, PTOs and PTAs are making it happen. Our Healthy School Kids program arms parent groups with articles, tools and products to help with these initiatives. In this video Tim talks about our Healthy School Kids program.

Here’s where you can find the articles that Tim references:
http://www.ptotoday.com/healthy-school-kids

Here’s how to sign up for the Healthy School Kids program: http://www.ptotoday.com/healthy-school-kids-samples

Space is limited so be sure to jump on this today.

No shortage of inspiration in this week’s news.  Here are my take-aways from this collection of articles:

• Not only is a jog-a-thon a great fundraiser but it’s also a terrific way to encourage families to get moving and make healthy choices.
• Family Fun days are a excellent way to build community while showing parents how to make learning more fun.
• Never, ever give up. This parent group’s turn around story offers hope for groups with low involvement.
• Sometimes some of the most basic things require a parent group’s attention… in this case, a PTO rallied support for a walk-to-school program.
• Parent groups have an opportunity to influence their community in their green living habits. Kudos to this PTO for challenging families to go “garbage free.”
• Think beyond fundraising- think pink! This PTA organized a pink day to highlight breast cancer awareness.
• Always love coming across articles about events that were inspired by our PTO Today Magazine… this giant hay maze sounds like a fun, fall event!

Hope you found something to inspire you. Have a fabulous weekend. Don’t forget to send me a link to any articles about your parent group!

As you know, it doesn’t take much for parents to talk themselves out of attending your events or getting involved at school.  A new obstacle I started seeing last year was flu fears canceling or hurting PTO and PTA family events. Ugh.

A few thoughts on this:

1. Has this been a factor at all with your group? I’ve been looking for groups that were affected last year by this fear or that have put good practices in place to combat it. Would love your feedback on our message boards.
2. I’ve always felt that it’s best to address fears like this head on (even if you think they’re overblown). If you’re hearing talk among your parents, take steps to help. Maybe get hand sanitizer for all your events (and announce that you have it), or have a clean-up crew disinfect all the tables before your spaghetti supper (and announce that they’ve done it). Providing info on how parents can keep their kids and families healthy is another good service.
3. Finally, we’ve been hearing of more and more groups that have “healthy kids” as a focus or even as a new committee. If your group is getting more into this topic, we’ve just created a section on PTO Today with specific content and special offerings just for you. Check it out and sign up to become a Healthy School Kids group. It’s a good resource now, and with all the interest around this topic, I’m sure it’s going to get better and better in the months ahead. By signing up, we’ll keep you in the loop on new offerings.

Good luck in all your work!

Well, cold and flu season is upon us. In anticipation of the sniffles and coughs we’ve launched a new Healthy School Kids page with lots of practical tips, tools and insight on keeping kids healthy during the school year.

To take the sting out of the season we are running a blog give-away. How would you like to win* a gift certificate good towards a professional house cleaning and a gift pack chock full of Lysol cleaning products? Cool, right?!

Here’s how the blog give-away works:

• Tell us what steps your group is taking to help keep kids at your school healthy this year and you could win* this cool blog give-away! Just post your comment on our PTO Today Facebook page for a chance to win.

• If you’re not sure how to begin, just start with an old fashioned fill in the blank: Our parent group is keeping kids healthy this school year by ____________.

• Get posting, because this is the perfect giveaway package for your group to offer to busy parents at an upcoming auction or health and wellness event!

* The Healthy School Kids blog drawing runs from October 6th through October 20th, at 11pm EST. At the end of that time period all Facebook fans who wrote a healthy kids idea on our wall will be entered into a drawing to win a professional house cleaning gift certificate, and a gift pack full of Lysol cleaning products. One entry per person and one name will be drawn randomly from all the comments.

Disclosure: Lysol is a sponsor of the Healthy School Kids program.

UPDATE: October 21, 2010- The winner of the Healthy School Kids give-away is Jamie Anderson. Congrats Jamie! Thank you to everyone who participated and shared their tips. Be sure to visit our Healthy School Kids page to sign up to get in on FREE healthy school kids samples for you to share with your parents at school events, and to pick up some great tips.

So refreshing to see that the trend of schools going green is picking up momentum. Recently we learned of a school that took “green” to a whole new level. The Learning Gate Community School in Lutz, Florida, walks the talk when it comes to all things green. Their curriculum is green, they have a “green team” comprised of students, staff and teachers… and now thanks in part to a Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant, several of their buildings are green. Not only green … but they are the first public school to achieve “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” – LEED for Schools Platinum certification.

Here’s what I learned about LEED certification:

“The LEED rating system considers a new building’s air quality, water and energy efficiency, environmentally friendly materials and construction waste. Even the type of landscaping around the building and how it is irrigated is considered.”

What I think are some of  Learning Gate School’s neatest green features are solar-powered classrooms and toilets flushed with rainwater. If you are interested in learning more about the process that the Learning Gate Community School went through to achieve Platinum certification, I highly recommend watching this fun video: Journey into Platinum.

Charles Girard, contractor for the project and President & CEO of Green Modular Solutions gave me a rundown of what he thinks are the most notable aspects of the Learning Gate Community School’s green buildings (with my notes in italics):

• an innovative HVAC system that “washes” the air to make sure that it is clean (Don’t you just wonder sometimes when the same virus goes around the school over and over, if it has to do with the HVAC system?!)
• daylight lighting that mimics natural lighting (Who doesn’t hate fluorescent lights?)
• a building that is synergetic – in other words, all parts of the building work together efficiently thus taxing our environment as minimally as possible. (A building setting a positive example for students – now that’s cool.)

It makes sense that these and more features all add up to a learning environment that has healthy students and staff, and an overall better learning environment. Not to mention that the whole approach is setting an amazing example for the students. I wish my kids went to this school!

So kudos to Learning Gate for taking on this immense project in order to benefit their kids, and to Lowe’s for helping to fund it.
Since 2006, Lowe’s has donated more than $22 million to 4,900 K-12 public schools, benefitting more than 2.5 million school children. Now that’s impressive. The current Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant cycle is open until October 15. What projects is your school thinking about?

courtesy of stock.xchng

Just came across a really neat program called the Green Thumb Challenge, offered by the Green Education Foundation (GEF).  Sounds like a wonderful opportunity for parent groups, schools, and most importantly kids!

The purpose of the challenge is to introduce kids across the country to the joys and healthy benefits of gardening.

The program runs between February 1 and August 31, 2010 and has set the goal of 10,000 classroom and outdoor gardens. How cool is it to think of 10,000 schools and parent groups working together to teach their children more about nature, sustainability, and nutrition? Besides the obvious benefits of participation, GEF has teamed up with Lowe’s and is offering all participants $10 off a $50 purchase at Lowe’s, and the opportunity to be awarded a $5,000 grant in recognition of their garden project.

Think I’ll bring it up at the next PTO meeting, how about you?

Is your group — like so many others — putting a focus these days on keeping children healthy? From exercise (and eating right) to the H1N1 virus to cough and cold and even to hand-washing, there are just so many concerns these days that affect our kids’ health.

It’s been interesting to watch so many groups getting proactive on the issue. Groups are spearheading flu clinics at school and hosting family events around healthy habits. Two great volunteers at my school just put together a weeklong health and wellness program, including a blood drive, pilates in the classrooms, and a road race. Love it.

With that in mind, we’ve recently put together a new dedicated space on ptotoday.com just about what groups are doing about Healthy School Kids. It’s already a nice resource and will get better each month as we add even more of the best ideas we find from parent groups around the country. And — bonus! — we also expect to have a whole host of free offers (samples and the like) from health-focused companies available for “Healthy School Kids” groups, starting in the next month or two. Check it out now (and preregister your group) at ptotoday.com/healthy-school-kids.