PTSA Membership Drive


PTSA Membership Drive	2
Walk-A-Thon	3
Scrip Bennett Fundraiser	3
Box Tops for Education	4
Bennett Calendar	4

Inside this issue:

Calendar

Calendario

September 27: Curriculum Night

Noche del Programa de Estudios

September 30: Walk-A-Thon

October 14: No School—Conference Day

No Hay Escuela -

Dia de Conferencias

October 19: Skate king, 1:30

Patinar en Skate King

October 21: Multicultural Potluck

Cena de Muchas Culturas

From The Editors

Editors: Karla Ostlund and Janan Carter

We are pleased to serve as editors of The Friday Flyer this year.

Just go to the Bennett Website: www.bennettelementary.org and click on “Click here to submit to the Friday Flyer”. Fill out the form, which will be forwarded to us for publication

The deadline for the next issue of The Friday Flyer will be September 30, 2005.

Billie Bloom 1926-2005

A long time mentor and supporter of Bennett passed away on June 26, 2005. Billie Bloom began mentoring a first grader 11 years ago with Laurena Huber. She followed her mentee to Steve Anderson, Jean Bolivar, Kris Shore and finally to Dave Halstead. When “her” first grader graduated from Bennett, she felt she wasn’t ready to start over with a new little one. She became my permanent mentor; a spelling, writing and life coach over 5 years for my 3rd and then 2nd graders. She served up total acceptance and affection for all the children 4 days every week! She became my dear friend, trustworthy sounding board and commander in chief of filing the children’s finished work!

Billie’s husband of 51 years, Dr. Alan Bloom, lives in Tam O’ Shanter. Billie and Dr. Bloom have 8 children, 11 grand children and 5 great grand children in addition to the hundreds of Bennett and neighborhood children who adopted her. Billie’s generous affection towards everyone she met, her wry sense of humor and her keen intellect will be sorely missed around Bennett.

Sandy Eschen

BENNETT WALKATHON 2005

Friday, September 30th, 3:30-6:00p.m.

WALK N’ ROLL

The Walkathon is a PTSA-sponsored family event, and one of our biggest fundraisers of the year. It is a wonderful way to get the year going, to meet new people and to have a great time with your entire family! Food will be served from 4-6, so plan on staying for dinner.

Great prizes will be awarded to the 5 kids that raise the most money for Bennett: a 13” TV with DVD player, an IPOD shuffle, a portable CD stereo, a telescope and a razor scooter. Don’t forget that employer matching gifts will be included as part of the total when calculating pledge amounts for prizes.

Lots of volunteers are still needed to make this event a huge success, please contact Susan Steckler (747-6769, susan@schooloffish.net) to sign up or look for the sign up board near the office. Thank you and see you on September 30th!

PTSA Membership Drive

by: Denice Malone, Co-President

Please consider joining our local unit, Bennett Elementary PTSA. By joining PTSA you are not committed to doing volunteer work (however, we APPRECIATE our volunteers and could not do all the great things we do without you!).

I urge you to look for and read the membership application that is included in the Friday Flyer packet--it will help explain the value of PTSA membership and what the fee is for. Fill out the form (you need to join PTSA every year) and turn in the form and fee to your child's teacher or the front office. They are great supporters of our PTSA and will forward the information to the PTSA Membership Committee.

In case you didn't know, by having membership in your local unit PTSA, your voice gets heard all the way to the National level. This is where we make changes that benefit your children! National PTA has backed and helped pass hot lunch programs, parent-teacher conferences, physical education, fluoridation in our water supplies, and the list goes on--PTA has been benefiting your children for over 100 years! Want to know more? Visit their website at: www.pta.org or Washington State PTA at: www.wastatepta.org

Scrip – Fundraising for Bennett as You Shop!

Scrip means “substitute money” – in other words, scrip is gift certificates from national and local retailers. They’re the same gift certificates that you buy at the store. Many popular retailers participate in our scrip program including JCPenney, The Gap, Amazon, Starbucks, Eddie Bauer, Red Robin, Nordstrom and many others.

How do these businesses help us raise money? Participating retailers agree to sell gift certificates to our organization at a discount. Member families like yours buy the certificates for full face value, they redeem them for full face value, and our school keeps the difference as revenue.

Scrip is exciting, because everybody wins:

- The retailer gets cash up front and repeat business…

- You get a powerful fundraising alternative that involves no selling…

- Our school gets a regular source of revenue.

The beauty of scrip is that you put your regular household shopping dollars to work. You earn money for our school without spending a single additional penny. Just spend your regular shopping dollars with scrip at the stores that participate in the scrip program! Scrip can be used for just about any household purchase including food, clothing, entertainment, gasoline and dining out.

You will receive a scrip order form with each issue of the Friday Flyer. Return your order to school with a check by the following Friday. Your gift certificates can be collected from the Bennett office on the next Friday between 3:15 and 4:00 p.m. Order deadlines and pick-up dates are listed on the order form.

Linda Dunk, Scrip Chair (phone: 653-2095, email: ljdunk@msn.com)

Dear Bennett Families,

Welcome to Bennett Elementary everyone! We have finished our first 3 weeks back at school and the students and teachers have slipped right into their routines. We are lucky to have such skilled and dedicated teachers, specialists, staff and principal to provide our kids with such a wonderful elementary school experience.

The PTSA is planning lots of wonderful events for this school year.If you attended our Welcome Tea on the first day of school, you probably signed up to be a classroom or PTSA volunteer.Thank you to all of our amazing volunteers for getting the fall events underway and for signing up for this year’s committees. Bennett Elementary is very lucky to have so many enthusiastic volunteers!All of our children will benefit from your involvement.

Our first all-school event, and one of the PTSA main fundraisers, is the annual Walk-a-thon on Friday, September 30th. This year's theme is "Walk n’ Roll".Your children should have received their packets and should be busy gathering donations from family and friends.We encourage you to support your children in this event with their pledges and also we invite you to come to the Walk-a-thon.You will be amazed about the amount of fun and excitement the event creates.We will be serving dinner until 6:00 so bring the whole family.

Bennett students are invited to the Skate King Social on October 19th.Permission slips will be going home the week before.Please make arrangements for your child to have adult supervision. If you work or are new to Bennett, you may want to buddy up with another classmate to trade watching your kids for the afternoon.

The PTSA is hosting a Multicultural Potluck Dinner on October 21st. You will enjoy many international dishes and a special presentation of student performances.Bennett is blessed with a diverse student population.This event provides each student and family the opportunity to share their heritage with their fellow classmates.Bring your favorite family dish and a big appetite!

The PTSA has an announcement board located across from the office.Please take a minute to glance at the notices if you happen to be in the building.will also find our PTSA website interesting for additional information at www.bennettelementary.org. Our Friday Flyer newsletter comes out every other Friday and articles may be submitted on the website. We encourage all Bennett families to attend the PTSA General Meetings and we welcome your suggestions and ideas!If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of the PTSA Executive Committee by phone or email..

Thank you again to all of Bennett's amazing teachers, staff and volunteers.The students of Bennett are the beneficiaries of your good works!

Sincerely,

2005-2006 PTSA Executive Committee

Why does that Legislative Stuff Matter?

By Carolyn Watson, Legislative Chair

You may be wondering why our Bennett PTSA has a Legislative Chair position, and why from time to time we bring up legislative issues at our meetings. After all we are a local group, supporting our kid’s school by raising money for things that matter in our building like technology aides and library books, and by providing programs like Science Night. So what do the often-boring seeming legislative issues have to do with it?

Well, a lot actually. While we are understandably very busy trying to do things for our children in the current moment, it is easy to forget our accomplishments of the past, and to feel that it must be nearly impossible to create meaningful change for the future.

But we have made enormous changes for the better through our child advocacy efforts. It seems unbelievable, but some of the changes PTA can take credit for over the last 100 years of its existence include the introduction of kindergarten classes, child labor laws, a public health service, hot lunch programs, a juvenile justice system, and mandatory immunization. Can you imagine? Without PTA legislative advocacy our children might be working in factories at a young age, succumbing to communicable diseases, and going without a hot lunch at school.

The Legislative work of the PTSA is one of the most important things we can do as PTSA members. It affects our children now and in the future. In fact one of the major goals of the national PTA is:

To support and speak on behalf of children and youth in the schools, in the community and before governmental bodies and other organizations that make decisions affecting children

Last year, we had a lot of success working with our leaders in state government to enact positive changes for our children.

If you would like to learn more about these changes and how you can help by becoming a PTSA child advocate, please contact

carolynwatson@comcast.net. I’ll put you on my legislative mailing list.

Bellevue Schools Foundation’s (BSF) Phonathon is coming – October 24, 25, 26, 2005.
You can make a difference for the children in our schools!Please make a generous donation when volunteer parents from our school call. Do for every child what we would do for our own. This year, BSF is raising $1.5 million for world-class, district-wide academic programs and support services for teachers and students in Bellevue’s schools.BSF relies on financial support from parents like you to provide these valuable programs for our students.Your dollars also support classroom grants, teacher training, book purchases, middle school science, VIBES mentoring, and childcare scholarships.Funds raised during Phonathon benefit all students in all Bellevue schools. Company matching funds double your contribution.Microsoft and Boeing are among the companies matching employees’ donations.Please contact your employer for a matching gift form.

Donate online at www.bsfdn.org/donate by October 12 and we won’t need to call you.

For more information on Phonathon, see the BSF website:www.bsfdn.org/Events/phonathon.asp.Or contact our office at 425.456.4199, email: info@bsfdn.org Want to Volunteer at Phonathon? We’re always looking for parents and students to help call others in our school during the nights of Phonathon. contact our zone rep to volunteer:Zone (Ardmore/Bennett/Sherwood Forest/Stevenson/Highland/Interlake): Andrea Cordova (cordovafamily@comcast.net)

Comprehensive Emergency Preparedness Expo and Workshop

Free—Open to the Public Seattle Center Exhibition Hall

Friday October 21, 2005 10a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday October 22, 2005 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday is Family Day—Special series for the kids

Sponsored in part by: King County Office of Emergency Preparedness