December 2018 Follow Steeple Run on Twitter @SteepleRun203 Season s Greetings! It s good to be a Super Star!
Home & School President s Letter Tis the season to be grateful! It s easy to get caught up in the hustle of the holidays, but as I write this newsletter, I am grateful for all the wonderful people who have given so much over the past few months in support of our Steeple Run community. There is so much to look back on and celebrate! During the month of October, our Health & Safety Committee, headed by Pilar Clark and Annette Prater, helped with hearing and vision screening, as well as visits to the DuPage County Dental Bus, for our students. Many thanks to Pilar and Annette, and Mahdavi Baddigam, Natalie Chen, Julie Hennessy, Sandy Monroy, Alexandra Stevenson, Irma Park, and Naomi Walcott for helping keep our students healthy! Parent-teacher conferences were also held during October. One of the ways Home & School gives back to our superstar teachers and staff is by treating them to dinner before the evening session of conferences. The money raised at our events funds this meal, which allows us to show the teachers and staff how much we appreciate their time. A special thank you to Nicole Breving, Elizabeth Hamilton, Komal Rajput and Emily Swistak for providing tasty treats for our teachers to top off their fall conference dinner! Speaking of treats, thank you to Karoline Goodnick, Ma Fa, Kim Linkon and Jayne Simpson for bringing treats to our October and November Connecting Over Coffee meetings. They were all delicious! Also during the week of conferences, our LC was transformed into a book store for our annual Book Fair. Thank you to Leslie Monahan and her team of helpers for creating a great shopping experience for our students and families! And don t worry if you missed the October Book Fair - there will also be one during the parent-teacher conferences in February. SFCP (School Family Community Partnership) held their first family movie night in October. Steeple Run families gathered together to watch Inside Out and hear a bit about social-emotional development from KidsMatter Executive Director Kamala Martinez. Thank you, Heather Stade and Bina Trivedi and the SFCP team for organizing this event! Thank you to Kim Kelly for coordinating our Spirit Wear sale this fall. Now we can show our Steeple Run pride! If you missed ordering in the fall, you will have another chance this spring to stock up on Steeple Run gear. Many thanks to Sandy Monroy for organizing an awesome fall Box Tops contest, and congratulations to 2nd grade on their win! We hope you enjoyed your extra recess! Keep collecting those Box Tops, we will hold a second contest in the spring! We ll see if 2nd grade can keep up their winning streak! As the weather turned colder, the front entrance was spruced up (pun intended!) with beautiful winter decorations. Thank you, Karrie Camp, for creating a welcoming space at our school entrance! December brought a flurry of activities at Steeple Run! Students were able to swap old books for new at our annual Book Exchange in early December. Thank you to Sabrina Malano and all of the volunteers who collected and organized books and helped our students select new books! Home & School hosted its annual Holiday Shop in early December. Thank you to all of the families that came out to buy gifts! Extra thanks to Jen Manieson and Megan MacConnachie for planning a fabulous holiday shop, and to all of the volunteers who came out to help on Friday night and Saturday morning, including Tammy Kerwin, Analia Sanchez, Elba Winfield, Lauren McDonald, Liz Hall, Priya Cochran, Kelly Conrad, Jessyca Dimas, Nicole Coderre, and Alison Delany. And thank you to the fifth grade Girl Scout troop for helping our shoppers wrap their gifts! Families were able to get a head start on their holiday shopping by ordering through our Star Dollars program. Many thanks to Megan Manley for coordinating this program for us!
As you can see, we have had a busy past few months! I am so proud of all that we have accomplished as a community. Moving into the new year, your Home & School is planning more fun for the rest of the school year. After winter break, Home & School will treat the students to an assembly featuring Matt Wilhelm and his amazing BMX tricks. Shows will be held during the day for students on Wednesday, January 16th. Friendship parties will be held in the classrooms in February, and Home & School is also planning a trivia night, which should be a fun night out for parents. SFCP will host World Exposition Night in February, where we can celebrate the diversity in our community at Steeple Run. We will also resume our monthly Connecting Over Coffee meetings after the break. Mark your calendars for January 24th, February 21st, and March 21st. Meetings start at 8:30am and are usually held in the Multipurpose Room. These meetings are a great way to stay connected to our Steeple Run community and keep up with Home & School events. Keep your eyes on the Week at a Glance emails for more details on these and other upcoming events this winter from your Home & School. You can also like Steeple Run Home & School on Facebook. And, as always, please do not hesitate to contact me or any other member of the executive board with questions, comments, or suggestions. From all of us, best wishes for a happy and healthy new year with your families! Nicole Baugh President (630) 212-3554 steeplerunhands@gmail.com Lauren McDonald Vice-President (630) 605-4011 steeplerunhandsvp@gmail.com Tiffany Tyson Secretary (630) 546-0746 steeplerunhandssecretary@gmail.com Tammy Kerwin Treasurer (630) 352-1651 steeplerunhandstreasurer@gmail.com Classroon Parties We ended October with our Fall Festival and were lucky to have a beautiful day to celebrate! Classrooms were filled with smiles and laughter as students played games and made crafts. Thank you to Lauren McDonald, Erika Long, Jamie Pozzi, Kim Clarke and Sarah Snyder, and the many parents and loved ones that helped with the parties and took pictures for the yearbook! Your creativity, time and effort made sure our students had a fun time! I am so grateful for the overwhelming response from Steeple Run families responding to the call for extra help with parties going forward. It is a big job to organize the many games and crafts for our 26 classrooms, but it s not so overwhelming when we all work together. I truly appreciate everyone who volunteered their time to serve as grade level leads or classroom coordinators. Thank you for helping us plan awesome parties for our students! We look forward to celebrating the Winter Parties on Friday, December 21st and Friendship Parties on Friday, February 8th with our students!
Benefits Thank you to our Superstar Benefit Chairpeople, Meghan Sciortino and Missy Ulrich for planning great events this fall! A great time was had by all at not one, but TWO, nights out at Board & Brush in Downers Grove! I hope everyone is proudly displaying their creations! And many thanks to all the families that came out to support Home & School during our Colonial Cares benefit night in November! Between these two fundraisers, Home & School raised over $750 to go towards supporting programs for our students! Be sure to save the dates for our upcoming benefits in January! First, we ll be breaking up winter break on Wednesday, January 3rd with some fun at Funtopia. Come out between 3-6pm and have some fun with friends with supporting Home & School. Please present the flyer attached to this newsletter and Funtopia will donate up to 30% of total sales to Home & School. Then, take a night off from cooking on Monday, January 21st! Head into Chipotle (1516 N. Naper Blvd) for dinner between 4-8pm and present the flyer in this newsletter. Chipotle will donate 33% of the sales to Steeple Run Home & School! Please contact Meghan Sciortino or Missy Ulrich at mailto:steeplerunhandsbenefits@gmail.com with any questions. Thank you for your support!