Final Change Challenge Update, Fall Picnic, and Other Assorted PTO News
And the winner is...
The Too Long, Won’t Read Summary:
Change Challenge is over! First grade wins! Thanks to all who participated!
Click here to volunteer to help us out with the October 17 fall picnic.
The Krispy Kreme fundraiser ends Saturday, October 7. Buy more donuts!
Chimm Thai Johnson Spirit Night Tuesday, October 24.
Next general meeting November 14, 2023.
The 2023 Change Challenge fundraiser was a terrific success.
With your help, the PTO raised $2,140.87! We are extremely grateful for your generosity and involvement over the last couple of weeks, with a special thanks to the teachers who kept the kids excited about the competitive aspect of the fundraiser. Every dollar will be conscientiously spent in support of our mission, and we are appreciative of every single discolored, wet, sticky, and off-smelling penny that got dropped into a jug throughout the contest.
In completely unrelated news, the Johnson Elementary Parent-Teacher Organization is throwing all of its considerable political muscle behind the effort to abolish the penny. Not that this is a frequent concern of most people, but do you have any idea how long it takes to count 10,000 pennies by hand? In recent years, Canada, Finland, Australia, and New Zealand have all eliminated their pennies, and those countries are still doing just fine. Did you know that the “grassroots movement” to keep the penny in circulation is actually just a front group for BIG ZINC? Abolish the penny! And maybe the nickel while we’re at it!
Also, congratulations to the First Graders! The final standings are below, with the First Grade winning an ice cream party at school tomorrow, along with the much more important prize of getting to turn Principal Mickens into a human ice cream sundae. (Stay tuned for pictures.) Just a tremendous, dominating performance by the First Grade. Better luck next time, other grades!
The 2023 Fall Picnic is coming up on Tuesday, October 17th, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.
The Fall Picnic is a great opportunity to hang out and have fun with the whole Johnson community, eat some food, play games, and chat with other families and the Johnson staff.
The picnic works best with everyone’s participation, so of course that means we need your help to make it as fun as possible for everyone. Here’s what we need:
Your Favorite Dish to Share — The fall picnic is mostly a potluck event, which means we need you to bring a little something to share with everybody else, if you’re able. Whatever you want to bring and plop down on the buffet line is most welcome!
GRILLMASTER — We need a couple of heroes to grill the hot dogs and toast the buns. This is an incredibly easy job that comes with all sorts of barely-earned glory, which is perhaps what attracts so many Dads to the task.
Food Organization — After so many of our wonderful potluckers have plopped their dishes down on the buffet tables, we’ll need somebody to stand around and just kinda manage things. Stick a serving spoon in that casserole dish! Open that tub of muffins! Restock the napkin supply! This is at least as important as the GRILLMASTER task, certainly more of a challenge, and comes with almost none of the GLORY.
Games Coordinator — Part of the fun of the fall picnic is giving the kids different games to play throughout the evening. Perhaps you have a cornhole set, or other yard games you could bring? Maybe you want to run a mini wiffle ball homerun derby on the field below? Your ideas are almost certainly better than ours. Please, make it happen!
A Treat for the Cake Walk — On the green top we’ll be playing a game that has been described to this previously ignorant correspondent as a spin on musical chairs, which is really just an excuse for the kids to dance around in circles and get fed sugary treats. We’ll need those treats! Whether tasty baked goods, cupcakes, cake-pops, fruits, or cookies, please bring something for the cake walk.
Set Up and Clean Up — We just need a few folks who are able to show up a few minutes early or stick around a little past 7:00 to help with the setting up and/or the breaking down and cleaning up.
Please sign up here if you are able to contribute in any of the above-listed ways. But most importantly, please just bring your family out on Tuesday, October 17! Everyone is most welcome, and the more people who come out the more fun it will be for the kids and everyone else. And we promise, no one will be stuck doing face-painting for two straight hours this year—we’ve hired professional glitter-tattoo artists, instead. Yes, seriously.
The Krispy Kreme fundraiser ends soon!
There are just over three days left to order a dozen Krispy Kreme glazed donuts and have half the order cost donated directly to the Johnson PTO. This is a very generous arrangement, and we’d love it if we could sell a few more dozen donuts in the next couple of days.
Perhaps you’d like to be a hero to everyone at the office on Friday morning? Bring in a couple of boxes of donuts! Are your kids playing soccer at some truly offensive hour this weekend? Bring a couple of boxes of donuts to the game, and shock the gathered spectators with your donut generosity! Or maybe you just want to keep a few dozen donuts out on the kitchen counter to graze upon through the weekend, which is a very normal and good thing to do! We’re not here to judge, we’re just here to put as many donuts as physically and emotionally possible into your very capable hands.
All you have to do is click this link, place your order, and then show up at ANY KRISPY KREME IN THE UNITED STATES to collect your donuts. Do you have family and friends out of town, and do these people also love donuts? Send them this link! Or, even better, order them some donuts, send them the redemption code, and invite them to take themselves to their nearest Krispy Kreme to collect the glazed goodness.
Chimm Thai Spirit Night
We are excited to announce that there is yet another way you can support the Johnson Elementary PTO just by getting dinner as you normally would. If your family is anything like my family, you eat dinner on most Tuesdays. Why not do so at Chimm at 5th Street Station on Tuesday, October 24, from 5:00 to 8:00? You’ll be able to order takeout from their website or dine in, and as long as you mention Johnson Spirit Night, Chimm will donate a portion of what you’re paying for dinner back to the PTO. Mark your calendars—October 24!—to remember to get some delicious Thai and Southeast Asian street food and support the PTO at the same time.
Next PTO Meeting November 14
That’s about all we’ve got for now. We’re excited to see everybody at the Fall Picnic on Tuesday, October 17, and then at our next PTO meeting on November 14. Have a great weekend, and remember that no great weekend is truly great without a human-sized stack of warm Krispy Kreme donuts.