Bennett
Friday Flyer
4-4-03
A bi-monthly newsletter of the Bennett Elementary School PTSA 2.3.22
Dear Bennett families,
Spring is here! With all that is happening around the world, we certainly should count our blessings that our children's lives are so safe and stable. We start to realize that we cannot take our protected lives for granted. Each day asks us to look at our lives with fresh eyes and a thankful heart! As I have said before, all of this makes me even more proud and appreciative of all our dedicated teachers, staff, parents, and volunteers who continue to make Bennett Elementary such a wonderful place to send our children.
With that, I would like to thank Marian McDermott and Ann Huseby for the amazing job they did on this year's Young Scientist Week. I especially liked the lab coats, nice touch! We would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped the kids set up their projects and those who organized and ran the experiments on family night. It was great to have Dr. Bob Northey do his 'fire show'. A huge thank you to Brent and Shirley Fernyhough for the 'frozen marshmallow' demonstration. Every year our Young Scientist Week just gets better and better!
We have just SUCCESSFULLY completed our Mariner Raffle fundraising event. We are thrilled to announce that we exceeded our goal of $10,000. Thank you so much to Sara Wilson, Dee Hoglund and their tireless committee for taking a rough idea and translating it into a fun, organized, profitable fundraiser! Congratulations to the Mariner Ticket winners and to the kids and classrooms for their enthusiasm and hard work! Each of our fundraisers allow the students to have more assemblies, fieldtrips, and programs like Young Scientist Week and Young Author projects.
The new PTSA Executive Committee has been 'sworn in' and we look forward to seeing how creative and organized they are! They will be heading to the Washington State PTA convention in May and will be coming home with lots of new ideas! Please feel free to give them all of your good ideas for next year's PTSA. We will be approaching all of last years committee chairs to enthusiastically chair their committee again next year. If you would like to chair a committee, please call one of the current PTSA officers and we will make sure you are penciled in! There is a list of the committees in the front of the Bennett phone directory. An early thank you to all of the 2002-03 committee chairs and volunteers. It has been a fun year with even more to come!
Our last fundraising event for the year is the Sock Hop'n Auction. The event is scheduled for Friday, May 16th from 5-9pm. We will be combining the traditional spring social (sock hop) with a mini version of the auction. This is a family event with an affordable dinner and dancing along with the auction, all located at convenient Bennett Elementary. Each classroom will be producing an 'Art Keepsake' as well as a 'themed basket' with items donated by the student's families. Your room parents have been given all of the details on the projects and should have scheduled meetings with the classroom parents to brainstorm ideas for the keepsakes and baskets! Besides attending the Sock Hop'n Auction, this is your chance to support our wonderful family fundraising event! Please contact Dawn Kuipers or Cynthia Daste' if you have questions or would like to volunteer at this event.
Well, I could go on and on (OK, I guess I have). This has been such a fun year and I hope you all have had a chance to get involved and share in the fun!
Sincerely,
Kristine Keski
PTSA President
Calendar
April 8: Board of Directors Meeting,
Including all committee chairs
April 9: Gears of Invention Assembly
April 14-18: Spring Break
May 6: Mexican Cultural Afternoon
May 6-10: Teacher Appreciation Week
May 8: BFLP Foreign Fest
May 13: PTSA General Meeting
May 14: Talent Show
May 16: Mini Auction / Spring Social
May 26: Memorial Day, No School
June 20: Last Day of School, Graduation
A Note from the Executive Board… oops!
The Executive Board apologizes for any inconvenience caused by our rescheduling of the March PTSA General Membership Meeting. When we discovered that virtually every 5th grade parent had a conflict with a Highland event, we moved the meeting from the previously scheduled Tuesday night to Monday night.
With a quorum present, the 2003/2004 PTSA officers were elected at this meeting as slated by the nominating committee. If you have any questions or concerns about this election, please talk with one of us on the executive board.
Again, we regret moving the meeting with limited notice. Thanks for your patience!
Kristine, Laura, Terry, Michele, Kris
Annual Family Sock Hop and MINI-AUCTION
Date: Friday May 16
Time:5:00-9:00pm
Who: Kids and families from Bennett!!
Come join us for our Annual Family Sock Hop! Added to the fun this year will be dinner, dessert and a MINI-AUCTION featuring the infamous Classroom Baskets and Keepsakes created by each of the classes! As in the past, there will no cost to attend the event but dinner will be available for purchase (more details regarding dinner to come!). This is the last of our PTSA fund raisers and with your help we are hoping to meet our goal of raising $13,000!! Please mark your calendars for MAY 16 for the SOCK HOP -N- AUCTION! !a favorite event enjoyed by the WHOLE FAMILY and is a great way to celebrate the year. Invitations will come home soon! If you have any questions or would like to help with planning please call:
Laurie Cottle 747-6974 or Dawn Kuipers 643-6343Hop co-chairs
Cynthia Daste 644-5362 Auction chair
Young Scientist Week
Many thanks to all the volunteers and Bennett staff that helped make Young Scientist Week a success. It took 85 volunteers and teachers to staff the many hands-on science activities during Family Science Night alone. Wow! Your donated time paid off – everyone had a wonderful time learning a thing or two (or twenty)!
We would like to give special recognition to the hard working "science ladies" (Cheryl Hamamoto, Denise Deshaies, Shannon Roth, Laura Hammond, Kim McDermott, Judy Giseburt, Jill Wagner, Amy Doran, Debbie McDowell-McGough, ), Brett & Shirley Fernyhough, Jim F., Bob Northey, Clay Dawson, Bruce McDermott, and Dave McDermott for donating time and materials to help make the week a success.
Ann Huseby & Marian McDermott, Science Team Co-Chairwomen
Pet Food and Accessories Drive
Week of 4/7 - 4/11
The Humane Society and Paws are especially looking for Canned Cat Food, Clean Blankets/Towels, New or Used Pet Toys, Shoe Boxes, Wall Street Journal Newspapers, etc. Please bring pet food and items to school during the week of 4/7 - 4/11. Questions? Call Laurie Cottle 747-5492, or Mary Gordon 644-8344.
Customer Service Class
We still have a few unspoken for spaces in our customer service class. Class begins next Tuesday. It meets Monday-Friday for 8 weeks, 12:30pm-4pm.Interested students can contact me at 425-739-8385 to set up an intake/registration appointment (30 minute appointment).
Christina Harter
Career Specialist
Family Workforce Development Center
425-739-8385
christina.harter@lwtc.edu
BFLP Date Change
The Bennett Foreign Language Program (BFLP)'s Foreign Fest has been changed from April 10th to Thursday, May 8th.
Class on Parenting Teens
Hopelink in Bellevue will be hosting a "Parenting Teens" class for low-income parents living on the Eastside who are the parents of teenagers. The class will be held on Thursday nights from 6 to 7 beginning April 3 and continuing until May 29 (no class April 17).Free childcare will be available. Please see the attached flyer for further details. Feel free to call me with any questions you might have!
Thank you!
Jessica Baden
Family Development Program
Coordinator
Hopelink
14812 Main Street
Bellevue, WA98007-5245
Phone (425) 943-7577(425) 644-9784
Hopelink -- helping families make lasting change
Bellevue's 50th Anniversary! “Incorporation Day” Birthday Celebration
50 Fest Dance As You Were Sock Hop, featuring fun family contests (hoola-hoop, best poodle skirt), a live 50s band, a DJ from KBSG Oldies 97.3 and more -- all for five bucks!
Bellevue Community College Gymnasium
April 5, 2003 (Saturday) 6:00PM - 11:00 PM
Tickets $5, kids 12 and under free, available on-line at www.bellevue50fest.comat the Bellevue City Hall Cashier's.
For more information on all Bellevue 50 Fest events, go to www.bellevue50fest.com
Multicultural Afternoon
Thank you to all the volunteers who helped in the Multicultural afternoon – Israel Carnival. We had a great time dressing up and creating arts and crafts. The Bennett students also had fun creating goody bags as part of the festive tradition; these treats are traditionally shared with friend and neighbors but originated from making gifts to the poor. At Bennett most kids created an extra goody bag which we have donated to North West Harvest to the joy of a few kids who can’t usually afford candy. Our next and last activity for the year will be our Mexican celebration in May! Don’t miss it!
Thank you, Gitit Banai
New PTSA Executive Committee
Congratulations to the newly elected 2003-04 Bennett Elementary PTSA Executive Committee. These elected officers are legally responsible for the operations of the PTSA as a non-profit corporation. Please congratulate and welcome them as you see them around Bennett!
Co-president Laura Hammond
Co-president Kristine Keski
1st Vice-president Dawn Kuipers
2nd Vice-president Vivian Price
Secretary Karen Black
Treasurer Greg Rice
State PTA Reflections Winners From Bennett
1st Place Literature Samantha Pfleger “Signs of Courage: Small Child, Big Alley”
2nd Place Visual Arts Jonathan Malyon “The Courage to Stand Tall When You Feel Small”
ATTENTION ALL DONATORS
Free the Children is an organization that helps prevent child labor. The 5th grade students are donating school supplies and health kits to Free the Children. You can help out kids that are poor and can't afford school in 3rd world countries. Just bring any school supplies or health kits to Bennett School and put them into the box in either room 18, 19 or 20.They will be happy to receive and we all thank you. For more information contact Stacey Hwang at school.
From The Editors
Editors: Karla Ostlund and Janan Carter
We are pleased to serve as editors of The Friday Flyer this year.
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The deadline for the next issue of The Friday Flyer is April 18th.
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