Soccer Skills

About three weeks ago, the PTA at the school where I work held a big auction.  It is a really fun night that is attended by parents and teachers and it raises a lot of money for our school.  The parent committee works very hard making the night perfect and this year, was a huge success.

One of the big “hits” of the evening are the teacher prizes.  All of the teachers donate a service to be auctioned off.  With prizes like, “Pizza and cupcakes with your teacher at lunch” or “Pancake Breakfast with your teacher” there is often a bidding war to win one!

One of my fellow kindergarten teachers and I offered a “Soccer Skills Class” after school and today was the day for us to carry out the prize.  My coworker Jessica is a very talented soccer player.  She played for her college and went on to coach for awhile afterwards.  She still plays several times a week in a league.  I, on the other hand, have learned to play soccer by watching my own kids play.  I know the rules, and I have fun playing, but after playing on season on an “over 40” team I realized that I was far from a stellar player and I stick to the sidelines.

The 6 children who won our prize didn’t care though!  My own boys came to help out and it was a fun filled hour of skills and a mini-game followed by a snack and a read aloud about soccer.

Our PTA goes over and beyond for the students and teachers at our school and these prizes that we donate are one way that we can give back.  Summer vacation begins next week and The PTA gets some time off as well and it is definitely time deserved.  Thank you for all you do!

Vounteering

Every year, Tuscan School, where I teach and where my youngest son is in 5th grade, puts on a school play.  The production is done entirely by volunteers.  Hours and hours go into the production, which runs for three days.  This year’s show, “Tuscan’s Ticket to Broadway” was fantastic.  I don’t even know where someone would begin to thank all of the people involved.  The play is a compilation of many groups of children and each group is run by volunteers.  There are also volunteers who create the art and scenery for the show.  More volunteers are involved with the backstage crew and the smooth running of each production.  During intermission, even more volunteers are on hand to sell snacks.. I don’t know how many families are involved, but I know that the show could not go on without them.  The volunteers are critical to the success of the show.

Volunteering can be something we choose to do in many different ways.  Volunteering is an activity that a person takes on for the benefit of someone else.  The Tuscan volunteers, have benefited an entire school.  Their time and effort was evident in the the performances.  These are people who freely gave their time and effort for cause that not only benefited their children but benefited other children as well.  The only thing these volunteers expect in return, is the joy of the children as they stand on stage and perform with pride.

It is important to take the time to thank these volunteers.  It will remind them of how special they are and how important they were to the well-being of your child.  There are so many ways for people to volunteer.  Think about volunteering at your child’s school.  It doesn’t have to be something that is a big undertaking.  Even small gestures can be a help.   Kindness takes many forms and volunteering is one way that you can spread kindness that could benefit many people.

Volunteering could easily become a way of life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

MLK Mitzvah Day

Since today we recognize Martin Luther King Jr, and it is also the inauguration of The President of The United States, I told my boys that today, we would be giving back to others by donating our time somewhere in the community.  We decided to volunteer with “Back Pack Pals”.  The four of us, my husband included, headed over to Congregation B’nai to help out.  Several churches and temples in the area were holding “days of service”‘ in celebration of Dr. King.  AlthoughI wrote about Back Pack Pals in an earlier post.  I had never actually seen the packs of food assembled.  When we arrived at the temple, we began to set up an assembly line.  Each bag of food includes, four meals (2 lunch, 2 dinner), 2 milks, 2 juices, 2 applesauce cups, 2 fruit cups and 2 breakfast bars.  This enables a child to have enough food to get them through the weekend.  Today volunteers helped pack over 110 bags.  All of the food goes to students in our school district.  I asked how many weeks this would last and was shocked to hear that nearly 70 bags are given out each week.  What seemed to be an enormous amount of food  would not even be enough for two weeks of meals!  One of the organizers, Dave, told me that every week, he has groups, (like the girl scouts and other local organizations), come together to pack up the bags.  The bags are then delivered to the students at their schools so that they can bring them home in their back packs and not be hungry on the weekends.  Many of these children are able to receive free or reduced meals during the week at school, but on the weekends, might otherwise go hungry.

This is such a worthwhile cause.  A lot of the money raised for Back Pack Pals comes from the Rent Parties – (this is from an earlier blog, https://aprojectforkindness.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/rent-party/).  If you are looking for a way to donate, I really want you to check out this program.  Both of my boys were as surprised as I was at how many children in our own school system benefited from it.  Check out their facebook page, and like it, to see some of the ways that you can help.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rent-Party-BackPack-Pals/244596515582876