Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing winter break. 

 

As I reflect on how the school year has gone so far, I continue to be amazed at the level of parent involvement at Island Park and am grateful for the many hours everyone is putting into supporting our wonderful teachers and making the school a better place for our children.  Here are just a few examples of some of the events and projects that have taken place in the last few months.

 

The Student Directories were delivered in November.  Big thank you to Mindy Rowe for all her hard work putting our directory together.  It is a VERY big job and one that positively impacts all families at the school!  Thank you Mindy!

 

The Island Book Brunch in November was a big success!  It was a fabulous event that supports a treasured local business and raises funds for Island Park.  This year we raised $1,364 for the school.  Thank you to Shelly Boyle and her team of volunteers for putting on this great event.

 

The PTA Reflections Arts Contest is a nationwide program that has inspired millions of students to reflect on a specific theme and create original artwork.  This year the theme was "Believe. Dream. Inspire."  Thank you so much to Julietta Bell for all her hard work organizing and promoting this important opportunity for our students to express themselves and be recognized.

 

In addition to staff appreciation week in May, our Co-Chairs are busy making sure the staff feels appreciated year round.  Dawn Lee and Deborah Lurie organized an enticing Baked Potato Bar lunch for the staff in early December.  Thank you so much to Dawn and Deborah and their huge team of parents who cooked for our amazing teachers and staff!

Thanks so much to Julene Levin and Sarah Vaux who have been doing an amazing job on Island Park fundraising.  The Box Tops competition was a big success, with Island Park children bringing in 8,438 box tops, including 1,547 from Mrs. Nielsen's class who won the competition.  The Amazon Rewards program gives Island Park a portion of proceeds from any parent purchase made from the Amazon link on the home page of the www.islandparkpta.org PTA Web site.  As of December 8th, we've raised $1,866 for Island Park from this program.  Thanks so much to all the parents who have supported the Box Tops and Amazon fundraising programs.

 

With the school bond and levy vote coming up on February 11th, there has been a dedicated team of Mercer Island Parents holding meetings and communicating about the bond/levy to help voters make an informed decision.  More information about this group can be found at www.fixovercrowding.com.  I'd like to thank a few of our Island Park parents who have been really involved in this group.  Thank you Paul Bergman, Mindy Smith, and Cathy Lee for all your hard work on this. 

 

And thank you so much to all the volunteers who help make this school run everyday in the classroom, library, music room, garden, at the local Starbucks, and everywhere!

 

Ashleigh Dickinson

PTA President