Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Friends Update

ENGLISH BOOK FAIR

We would like to give a big Thank you to the 23 people who volunteered to help out at the book fair. We sold roughly $6500.00 in books last week of which 60% of that will go back into the classrooms as books. Having books available in our classroom libraries is an effective way to stimulate our kids to pick up a book and read. Thank you as well to everyone who came out to support the book fair by purchasing books etc.

PUMPKIN PATCH

We will be holding our 2nd Annual Pumpkin carving/decorating contest this week at NMS. Students who wish to do so, can carve or paint a pumpkin and drop it off on Wednesday October 28th.
Pumpkins will be displayed and fellow students can then view the masterpieces on the 29th. All can vote for their favourites with pennies. Kids can vote as many times as they wish and all pennies collected will be donated to UNICEF.
Pumpkins can then be taken home on the 30th in time for Halloween.
Please note, pumpkins can not be taken on the bus but parents are more than welcome to drop them off at the office.

SCHOOL DANCE (October 29)

Our first school dance of the year will be the Halloween Dance on the 29th. Thank you to all those who volunteered to help out at the dance. The dance starts at 6pm and runs until 8:30pm. Volunteers will be notified this week as to what time they are scheduled to help out.

The admission to the dance is $3 with a donation of canned cat or dog food, and $4 without a donation.

We are also planning to decorate for the dance, if you are interested in helping with this, please let us know.

FIREFIGHTER"S CHALLENGE

This year's Firefighter's Challenge will be held in the Gym on Thursday, November the 19,2009. We are looking for Volunteers to help with the set up of the obstacle course on Wednesday evening as well as volunteers to help with the day long event on Thursday. This is a fun event that has all grade levels participating in an obstacle course challenge to simulate some of the many things our brave firefighters encounter on a daily basis. Please note: volunteers help at the various stations that are set up. You do not have to run the course. :)

H1N1 CLINIC

The school will be running the H1N1 immunization clinic on the 4th of November and is looking for a couple of volunteers who are familiar with the school to help with directing the kids. If interested in helping out, let us know.

MUNCHIE TABLE

For the past few years, we have been providing a "Pick Me Up" for our staff during Parent Teacher interviews. We set up a Munchie Table that the teachers can snack on during the interview period. Interviews take place the evening of the 12th and morning of the 13th. If anyone is interested in sending in some food items on the 12th to help us accomplish this, we would be very grateful. We would appreciate any contributions, particularly fruit, veggies, sandwiches, cookies, muffins, yogurt etc....

UPCOMING MEETINGS etc.

Next General Meeting : TBA

Nominations for the positions of the 3 Co Chairs will be accepted from December 7, 2009 until 3pm December 11, 2009. Nomination forms will be made available just prior to these dates and will be posted on the Blog.

Elections will take place January 13, 2010.

The Friends of NMS Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday January 14, 2010 at 7pm.

More information will be made available prior to these dates.


Sincerely,
Mary Rowe, Janice MacFarlane and Mary Leo Dick
Co Chairs of Friends of NMS

Friday, October 16, 2009

Friday, October 9, 2009

Friends Update

Hi Everyone,

We are happy to report that our distribution list is now up and running. We want to ensure that everyone who provided an email to us does get contacted. If you know of anyone who provided an email address on their volunteer form but did not receive this, please have them contact us so we can verify receipt of their form.

Volunteer Forms
We wanted to thank each and every one of you who have taken the time to contact us or fill out a form. Our volunteer numbers are at an amazing 175. We are thankful for the growth of Friends over the past few years and that the momentum continues.

French Book Fair
Thank you to the volunteers we were able to come out and help with the French Book Fair on Sept 29,30 and Oct 1. We had a whopping 30 people come out to help us promote the love of reading to our kids and outlying community. Also, Thank you to everyone who stopped by to have a look and purchase books. The French Book Fair brought in over $10,000 of sales. That gave NMS a profit of over $ 5700 in books which will be used to build classroom libraries. The NMS staff is very appreciative. :)

Corn Boil
We would like to give a big Thank you to our Corn Boil Volunteers. This event was put on short notice (as is sometimes the case at NMS :) ) and yet we had such a wonderful turnout. We had 11 people who helped out during various parts of the picking/husking or boiling. The free corn was then served up to our 780+ students and staff. Special thanks to Harveys Big Potato for their generous donation of the corn. All remaining corn cobs were donated to the Food Bank.

English Book Fair
Coming up on October 20,21,22, we will be having an English Book Fair. We will be running it from 10 am -6 pm on Tuesday the 20th, 10 am-6 pm on Wednesday the 21st, and 10am-4pm on Thursday the 22nd. If anyone would like to volunteer for this event, please drop us an email.

Dance
Mark your calendars....the first dance of the year will be October 29th. If you are interested in helping out, let us know and we'll pass your name to the dance committee.

Thanksgiving is the time of year when we all reflect on those things that we are grateful for. In addition to family and friends, we are grateful for an administration and staff that welcome parental involvement for our kids. We are also very grateful for such a fantastic group of parent volunteers here at NMS. We can't wait to see what we can accomplish throughout this year.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving,
Mary Rowe, Janice MacFarlane and Mary Leo Dick
Co Chairs of Friends of NMS