Parent Groups In Action: Our Weekly Roundup

This

s we

s week, we have PTOs supporting a multi-cultural community, contributing to a local charity and raising money in a very smart way.

• In Loveland, Colo., a local Padres en Accion (Parents in Action) group affiliated with the Winona Elementary School is helping to build a connection with Spanish-speaking parents. The group holds monthly meetings to provide information to parents about classroom and event volunteer opportunities as well as how to help their children with homework. School officials report it is helping parents feel more connected to the community.

• Pine Beach Elementary School students in Pine Beach, Fla., have reason to feel proud as they get ready to donate $10,000 to a local charity, Ocean of Love. This effort represents 8 years of hard work, collecting one million pennies to make that $10,000 mark. That’s 3.6 tons of coins. A seventh grader who took part in the collection several years ago said the program has taught kids “about charity and community.’’

• The students at Alma Schrader Elementary in Cape Girardeau, Mo., put on their thinking caps to help the PTO raise $11,000. In their recent fundraiser called Knowledge-A-Thon, the kids were asked to answer 100 grade-level questions and raised money by seeking sponsors prior to the event who agreed to pay certain amounts based their test results. They were given weeks to prep and practice and a school official pointed out that the beauty of this fundraiser is the students were learning materials related to the curriculum, not trivia. The PTO will use the funds to buy classroom equipment and pay for field trips.