September PTO News Digest
We're more than just a coffee meet-up group, honest!
Krispy Kreme Fundraiser
As many of you no doubt already know, the doughnut has played an unusually central role in human cultural development. Historians trace its origins back to Lower Mesopotamia around the year 4500 BC, where ancient Sumerian bakers punched holes in their popular round fried cakes to make them easier to transport in the traditional method—a long rope threaded through the center of a dozen doughnuts and worn home as a necklace. The brightest engineering minds of the time—inspired while snacking, as has so often been the case—then made a profound breakthrough: they punched the first axle-holes in solid wooden discs, creating a new type of simple machine that led to the first wheeled vehicles, the domestication of the horse, cities, and, well, look around! Civilizationally, it’s all been smooth sailing since then, all thanks to the doughnut.
Would some “experts” quibble with portions of this somewhat abridged history? Perhaps. But the fact remains, the human and the doughnut have achieved a lot together in the last few thousand years. In the spirit of honoring those many accomplishments, your friendly neighborhood PTO would like to invite you to buy a dozen doughnuts (or more!) from our local esteemed doughnut purveyors at Krispy Kreme in 5th Street Station.
The smart consumer always wants to know what they’re getting out of any transaction, and what it will cost them. To be clear, you (the smart consumer), are getting doughnuts. But, as this is America and also a shameless sales pitch, you are also getting something more. Along with those twelve doughnuts, you will be filled with the satisfaction of knowing that fully half of your dollars spent will be sent to the Johnson Elementary PTO. You will have doughnuts and the pleasant sense of fulfillment that comes with participating in both commerce and community.
Just click this link, place your order, and enjoy. You get the doughnuts, the PTO gets some money. Everybody wins!
A Call for Volunteers
Look, we humans are nothing if not a mess of confounding contradictions. Thus, in the very moments after asking you to purchase doughnuts for the, uh, good of your belly and to the financial benefit of the PTO, we are now going to discuss a new initiative that aims to improve the physical and mental well-being of our beloved children.
From the ever gracious and generous of time Randi Jennings:
Johnson, let’s get moving in the mornings together!
We’re working to start a daily before school movement program where students, teachers, and family members are all invited to walk, run, or roll together behind Johnson.
Here are just a few benefits we can help our students access by starting the day with outside movement:
Improvements to cardiovascular health.
Supports better sleep. Exercise and exposure to direct sunlight early in the morning helps to regulate sleep-wake cycles, making going to sleep and staying asleep at night easier.
Primes students for school. Exercise helps optimize arousal levels for learning, social engagement, and emotional regulation.
Builds community.
We’ve got school support, the space, a lap counting app to make it extra easy... all that’s missing is YOU!
Our goal is to have 3 volunteers available to help every morning between 7:15 and 7:55. Volunteers will help with “traffic flow” and scan student barcodes to digitally log laps. Ideally, we’ll have enough volunteers to assign each person just one or two mornings each week.
To volunteer, please email Randi at randi.dayton.jennings@gmail.com with available mornings or other questions.
Thank you!
Once we have volunteers coordinated, we will send more details about a potential start date and how to participate! Please note that volunteers will be required to complete CCS volunteer training before participating, for the safety of all involved.
2023 Change Challenge starts Monday!
The Change Challenge returns to Johnson this year with the goal of relieving you and your couch and your bedside table and that jar you keep in the kitchen of all those annoying coins. Coins! Who wants them cluttered about, making a mess of things? They’re a heavy, jangly relic of a less civilized time, before VENMO. They’re not even really money, are they?
Obviously, yes, coins are money, but, like ants or rice, coins are most powerful when they combine forces with a bunch of other coins to become the precise monetary sum of their parts, which, when then deployed to the benevolent ends of the PTO, is actually much more than just money. What looks like a mere handful of pennies and quarters to you is actually an opportunity for your kids to participate in the time honored tradition of losing the Change Challenge to Ms. Rickabaugh’s fourth graders. Here are the details:
The Change Challenge fundraiser starts this Monday, September 18th! The Johnson PTO is sponsoring a Change Challenge to raise money to support our teachers and students throughout the year. Students, bring in your loose change and help your grade win an ice cream sundae party and turn Ms. Mickens into a human sundae! Here are the Rules:
Each grade (K-4) has its own jug for collecting coins. Jugs are located in the main lobby.
GAIN POINTS for your grade by adding silver coins to your class jug.
LOWER other grade totals by adding pennies to their jugs.
The Change Challenge runs from Sept. 18th to Sept 29th.
The grade that collects the most points WINS the prize!
The prize is an ice cream party and the opportunity to cover our very game principal with ice cream and toppings. Please give generously!
Tuesday, September 26 is Johnson Spirit Night at Chick-fil-A on Barracks Road
Perhaps you’re not a fan of doughnuts, or all that they have wrought, but you still want to help bring in money for your local PTO. Or maybe you enjoy doughnuts and delicious fried chicken sandwiches served with waffle fries. Whatever the case may be, here is another opportunity to combine your generosity of spirit with the basic ongoing life necessity of caloric sustenance. Just head over to the Chick-fil-A in the Barracks shopping center between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 26 and order some food. Mention that you are there in support of “Johnson Spirit Night,” and the PTO will receive 15% of those proceeds. Click here to add a reminder for this event to your Google calendar, then click Save. Don’t forget the milkshakes!
Dark Skies, Bright Kids Event this Saturday!
Though it may not always be obvious, what with so much of the modern human experience being mediated by the screens that seem to run our lives and the fact that we are here, on Earth, we do indeed seem to live in an unthinkably vast universe that is overwhelmingly devoid of all matter. In excess of 99.99 percent of the universe is just…nothing! The good news is, space is quite large, and despite being mostly nothing, there is still a great deal to see and be utterly transfixed and awed by.
In order to fight the crushing ennui and despair than can occasionally be brought on by a life lived inside our devices in a mostly cold and empty universe, the astronomy department at UVA is hosting its 13th Annual “Star Party” at Albemarle Ciderworks from 6:30 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. Admission is free and open to the entire community. There will be telescope observation, hands-on astronomy activities, and cider tastings for the grown-ups. Please come out to 2545 Rural Ridge Ln in North Garden, VA for an evening of star-gazing. Feel free to respond to their RSVP on Facebook, or just make an appearance out there this Saturday night. There is much to see!
PTO Meeting Tuesday, September 19
Finally, a reminder that we’ll have the first General Meeting of the Johnson Elementary Parent Teacher Organization this school year this coming Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. in the Johnson cafeteria. Principal Mickens will also be on hand to deliver a rousing report on Johnson’s performance and her plans for the school moving forward. Sources with knowledge of the principal’s process have informed me that she’s currently trying to cut her set down to a fiery and engaging twenty minutes, but doesn’t want to lose the dance number, so we’ll see. There will be free pizza for dinner and we would love to see you there!
That’s all for now. Thanks for all you do for our school, your kids, and our community. Talk to you soon.
This is perhaps the most fun to read PTO newsletter ever!