January 2011

The holidays have past, we returned to school ready for anything & we have already successfully maneuvered through almost 3 weeks of school in 2011. Our PTA activities in December included a special Angel Tree program this year, which helped families in need in addition to the already very successful Giving Tree and Food donation drives held in November/December. The Angel Tree program offers holiday assistance by allowing the families to sign up for assistance from our fellow CCE friends and neighbors through anonymous gift giving for each member of the family. We were able to help over 75 families this year alone through our Angel Tree Program and that is not including the Giving Tree and Food Drive assistance given!

We wrapped hundreds of gifts, passed them out during a CCE event at the Academic Resource Center in mid-December to the delight and very thankful families in attendance. Additional giving was also done through used clothing and food drive offerings at the center that day.

Liz Duncan and her Holiday Helpers did a superb job of pulling this event off in record time, without nearly a hitch! Santa Claus - watch out! We have a local Santa of our own and she's pretty great.

Thank you is such a small word as Liz says, but thank you to everyone who participated in this activity for the 2010 holidays. Your help is immensely appreciated and you provided kindness and support to so many people that didn't know where to turn for help.

January 2011 is off to a great start. The 1st PTA Family Night for 1st, 3rd and 4th grades on January 13th was held with an awesome BBQ Dinner provided by Tim & Kelly Moore. Take out was a new offering for dinner this year and allowed more families to partake in the event even if they weren't able to attend the activities later that evening. 1st grade families got to attend a movie in their child's classrooms "The Magic Bus gets Lost in Space" which thrilled our young audiences. A special thrill was available to anyone who got to view Jupiter through a 1st rate telescope outback on the basketball courts that night as well!

3rd and 4th grade parents got to attend informational sessions about the upcoming FCAT writes and reads on the 13th in addition to a Family Photo event provided by Scott Russell Photography.

1st grade sleepover was held on January 20th with the Constellation Ball attended by everyone that afternoon after a parade and day of science and astronomy-related activities in their various classroom centers.