[Durham INC] An easy way to help the newly reinstated Lowe's Grove Middle School PTA

Sat Aug 24 14:31:34 EDT 2013

Please see the email below, which I sent to my neighborhood listserv. If you could save boxtops and education labels and/or link your VIC/MVP/Target-Red cards to Lowe's Grove (instructions below), we sure would appreciate it. It's a little task for you, but if we get half of Durham to do it, it could result in big benefits for us ;-)

If you are able to collect 100 boxtops or more (not a hard task even with your regular shopping, but you have to look for them and cut them out), I would greatly appreciate it if you'd mail your boxtops/labels to me:

Melissa Rooney
301 Spring Garden Drive
Durham, NC 27713
mmr121570 at yahoo.com

If you don't want to spend the 44 cents for postage or you have a box full of boxtops, just email me and I will arrange to pick it up the next time I am in your area (you can just leave it on your front stoop).

Melissa (Rooney)

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Melissa Rooney <mmr121570 at yahoo.com>
 Sent: Saturday, 24 August 2013 2:23 PM
Subject: My middle school (the school that Fairfield is districted for) --

Hi all. I am writing to ask for your help as neighbors and Fairfield/Durham residents. Three requests:

1) I am asking that you please collect boxtops and labels for education for the newly reinstated Lowe's Grove Middle School PTA. I will leave a small bucket on my front stoop (301 Spring Garden Drive, we have a Tarheel gnome by the large Bradford Pear Tree on the left side of our driveway), and you can just drop your collected boxtops and labes (in a ziplock bag, if you think about it) into this box throughout the 2013-14 year.

2) In addition,if you haven't linked your MVP (VIC, etc.) cards to an organization yet this year, please consider linking them to LGMS: Complete instructions are below my signature. If you link your Target Red card, we will get 1% of the value of all of your purchases using this card.

3) Finally, I have about 300 scented #2 pencils (grape, cherry and cinnamon) that we tried to sell at Open House this past week but that are apparently more popular with elementary kids (up to grade 5/6). Please consider buying at least 2 scented pencils ($1 total). If you want to do this, please contact me at this email address. I will make a list of those who want these pencils (would make nice First-Day-Back-To-School presents) and then I'll come collect the $ (and drop off the pencils) one evening (hopefully tomorrow/Sunday, depending on the interest). 

Background: Why should you collect boxtops/labels and link your cards to LGMS and not another organization? Here is some background on the great things that are happening there and why they need your support.

We reinstated the Lowe's Grove Middle School (LGMS) PTA last year (it has been defunct for over a decade) and have a small group of very dedicated people who are determined to make it stick. I am the PTA president and, though it wasn't a job I volunteered for, we have two very knowledgeable and dedicated VPs, a treasurer and a secretary with experience in these roles (they are both teachers), and a teacher-liaison/nominating board member who arranged for our treasurer and secretary and isn't stopping there.

We have been helped by the change (this year) of LGMS to a magnet STEM school (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). WRT to the STEM program (in case you aren't acquainted with it -- I wasn't), the curricula are comprised of 'Techways' that include Robotics and Environmental Technology among others (but it appears that these two have been a particular draw). 

Incidentally, and of particular interest to parents of kids who have a hard time sitting still (ADD nor not), the Lowe's Grove School of Technology is also also offering 'Arts and Kinesthesiology' as a Techway. I didn't know what this was at first. Kinesthesiology incorporates physical activity into learning. Though I don't know much about the details and I think we should be incorporating physical activity into learning at every school and at every grade level, we all know how, from middle-school on, our kids are pretty much sitting in indoor classrooms/cafs for nearly 6 hours straight (broken only by bathroom breaks and hallway walks between classes) -- not sure I could concentrate that long -- the fact that LGMS is one of few schools that is 'officially' implementing this kind of philosophy has drawn a number of parents as well. 

At any rate, we have high hopes that the LGMS PTA will not only stick but will be a model for other schools that don't currently have one (and you'd be surprised how many there are, across Durham, across NC and across the country).

So....we are building our membership base daily and we are trying to raise a nest-egg. We got $2000 from the Durham Eagles (Football program) - just out of the blue! So that's given us a real starting budget, at least :-)

Thank you for your help moving forward...
Melissa

Melissa Rooney, Ph.D.
Lowe's Grove Middle School PTA President
mmr121570 at yahoo.com

_________________

Instructions:

* To Link Food Lion MVP cards, go to the following website:https://www.foodlionmvprewards.com/mvp_registration/cardno.phpand enter LGMS’s School Code 213603 (the school name option doesn’t work)
>>  
>>* To link Harris Teeter VIC cards, go to the following website:
>>https://www.harristeeter.com/other/my_harris_teeter/login_page.aspx. Sign up or log in with your email and Harris Teeter card number. Then select ‘Together in Education’ on the left side of the page and enter LGMS’sSchool Code 3246 (or follow prompts to select school).   
>> 
>>* If you have a Target Red Card, you can link that too (so LGMS gets back 1% of your card purchases) by going to:
>>https://www-secure.target.com/redcard/tcoe/enroll. Then type in Durham and NC and LOWES GROVE (no apostrophe) and register your Target Red Card on the next webpage that comes up.
>>
>>
>>______________________
>>
>>
>>Boxtops: 
>>General Info: http://www.boxtops4education.com/products/participating-products
>>Click here for a BOX TOPS CLIP OVERVIEW 

>
Labels for Education: Please save the labels on the website below and put them in the bucket at 301 Spring Garden Drive. We can get classroom supplies for LGMS via the points we earn when we (the PTA) sends these labels in.

http://www.labelsforeducation.com/Earn-Points/Participating-Products

Here is more information on the program

http://www.labelsforeducation.com/Earn-Points/Clip-UPCs
>
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