Greetings from Forest Hills!
We started the year with a brand-new executive. The elected executive is: Joanne Masson, President; Sarah Ingalls, Vice-President; Louise Elliott, Secretary and April Beals, Treasurer. We all were a little nervous with over 700 students in our K-8 school. We jumped right in.
Our membership drive began on our open house in September. We had a table set up trying to let parents know what we are about and requesting names for volunteering. We also sent out forms for members at the beginning of the year. We currently have 23 paid members out of which we have 10 active members.
Volunteer Activities
Our paid members throughout the year are involved daily in the school. Our total of volunteer hours would be approximately 354 hours for all our members. We are responsible for supervising milk for lunch and breakfast, tutoring, making ice packs, cutting laminating and distributing fluoride. We offer breakfast boxes containing dry cereal, raisins, apple sauce, pretzels, cheese & crackers, and fruit leathers. Our members purchase all items and fill these boxes weekly. We also collect money for our hot lunch program weekly, which we offer everyday of the week. Our members also serve the lunch.
Forest Hills has a book fair during both Parent-teacher days and one in June. Our members help with set up and work this book fair.
The school has an annual flea market which we help with set-up and work. This raises money to help fellow students whose families need a little help for Christmas.
Fundraising
We had a Lovable Labels campaign in the beginning of the year held over from last year. This was not very successful. We held monthly movie days which bring in around $120 monthly. We provide popcorn for $1 and juice boxes for $0.50. We had a Fun Pasta Campaign before Christmas which was successful. We raised a little over $1600. May 1st we just began a Canadian Tire Money campaign. We are asking students to collect Canadian Tire money and send it to the school. Depending on how much we collect, we will either purchase items for the gym and/or buy a big item to sell raffle tickets on. The class that raises the most will receive an ice cream party.
Our proudest moment this year would be a combined fundraiser we had with Glen Falls School for one of our students, Ben Bridges, who needed a heart transplant. We helped with a steak n’ stein at the Three Mile Tavern and an auction which raised a lot of money to help his family’s costs for traveling to Toronto. He had his transplant, recovered nicely, and managed to play hockey for our Forest Hills Falcons in March & April.
Contributions
Our biggest donation this year would be $1,100 toward a new scoreboard for the gym. Our students successfully fundraised all year for the board and had $1,100 left to meet the $8,500 price tag. We were very happy we could help.
During Christmas concerts, we offered apple juice and gingerbread cookies to our visiting families and friends free of charge.
In April, the school had a Literacy night titled “Pajama Jam”. We provided apples, orange slices, cookies, juice and milk for a snack while literacy activities were done.
In June, our school held our annual fun days and we provided a variety of frozen treats for the students and staff.
TSAW: Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week
This year for TSAW we provided a tea in the middle of the week with sweets, fruit trays, and tea provided by our school’s parents and Home and School while our local Java Moose donated coffee. Everyday, for five days, we had prizes drawn for all teachers and staff (8-9 prizes daily) which we either purchased or donated. The grand prize of a one-hour massage was drawn at the end of the week. It was donated by local massage therapist, Kim Elliott, RMT.
We had a very busy year with lots of ups and downs. To everyone who helped whether you are a member, non-member, or teacher/staff, we thank you. We hope you all experience success.
Respectfully submitted,
Louise Elliott Secretary, Forest Hills Home & School
