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Thursday, September 27, 2007

Congratulations Room 109

ARMATAGE FAMILY FUN WALK is the fall fundraising event name, created and voted on by Armatage students. The Name Challenge was met by the class of Ms. Lingen, Room 109, whose entry was chosen from many wonderful and creative nominations from Armatage students. Ms Lingen's class will be awarded a healthy breakfast, provided to them in class by the PTA during the week of September 24th, and a certificate of achievement. Great work everyone!

I Love The New Fundraiser!

I just wanted to let you know that my daughter has raised $200 for the family fun walk, and it has been the easiest thing we have ever done! She sent out an email to friends and family asking for donations for the school, letting them know that she would participate in a day of physical activity in return for their donations, and that the money raised will help her school fund the things that are important to her such as reading and math tutors, busses for field trips, and her personal favorite: Kids on Broadway. The response was immediate and the checks are rolling in! She feels really proud that she’s helping her school, and I am extraordinarily happy that all I had to do is provide her with e-mail addresses! Now we are looking forward to the big event – I understand there will even be a DJ. It sounds like a fabulous party!

Thank you to all that are pulling this together!

Daena Stearns

Monday, September 24, 2007

How YOU Can Help!

The fundraising for the Fun Walk is under way and we have both immediate and future needs to share with you.

Contacting Sponsors- We have an immediate need for people to help call on - either by phone or in person - local businesses to ask for donations of goods or money for the event. We also have a list of corporations with a presence in our area that we would also need contacted to ask for sponsorship. We are offering both groups promotion of their organization on our blog, on T-shirts worn by the kids and with a table/booth on Walk Day. The list of the corporations is at left. If you can help with these contacts in any way, please notify co-chair Tina Erazmus 612-929-9079 or mrsraz1999@yahoo.com, as soon as possible.

Challenge Board Monitor - T o help generate enthusiasm for the event and to build team spirit, we would like to create a Challenge Board where teachers, classes and grades can challenge each other to meet goals related to health and the to the event. Need one or two people to create the physical board, set it up in a visible location, notify the teachers and classes of this opportunity, record and monitor the challenges issued. Also, provide small write-ups for Kanga News and or blog on these challenges. Unless there is a designated person for this board, it will not be undertaken.

School Spirit Week - We have designated Oct 1-5 as School Sprint week to help increase excitement about the walk event and the school itself . Monday will be Team Outfit Day, where kids can wear jerseys or clothes with a team focus whether it be major league sports or their own local teams or health/sports related groups. Anything goes as long as it does not cause distraction in class. Wednesday will be Work-Out clothes Day and Friday will be Armatage School Colors Day ( blue and gold/yellow, in case you weren't sure). We need one or two people to help make signs and develop write-ups and/or flyers for the special days.

All School Rally - We are planning to have a rally sometime the week of Oct 15th to update the kids on our progress towards reaching the goal of $16,000 and encourage them to make a final push to collect as much as possible. We plan to distribute actual prizes won by students in the raffle drawings up to that point, lead the kids in some exercises and/or cheers to get them moving and grooving and have some other fun activity. Our hope was to have a health related public figure attend but so far, we haven't been able to identify anyone who will do it without being paid. Need 2-3 people to plan the rally outline, create write-ups and flyers to announce it and possibly MC the rally. There are some ideas floating around about activities to do during the rally so you would have something to build on.

Pre-Walk Dinner - Pam McCarthy- Kern has been tirelessly getting donors for the spaghetti dinner we will be having in the evening of October 26th in the Armatage Park building. She has a lot pulled together for the meal but another planner and/or helper to get paper supplies, servers (we're thinking of Armatage Alumni) would be great. We also need a Raffle/Door Prize Coordinator as we hope to have giveaways for people coming to the dinner as well as presenting awards to major fundraiser winners such the top class fundraiser and the top student fundraiser. Something else related to the dinner is decorations, set-up and take down and this will be headed by Ellie Feldman. Another 1-2 people would be a big help to her in this.

Walk Day Event - The end product of all our efforts! We have set-up volunteers already lined up with John Mattby, Sarah Murray and Susie Fry. At least two more people will be needed to help organize the sponsor/display tables, brainstorm and develop other activities in addition to the walk, creating signs or decorating sidewalks with health tips and facts, etc.

Please let me or Tina Erzamus know as soon as possible which of these areas you can help with. Some, like the Challenge Board and School Spirit week could be done, in large part, at home with some help n school or during the day from your co-chairs and other committee members and volunteers. We'd also love to see you at our planning meetings which are held on Tuesdays at 6:30 PM in the Armatage Park and Rec building. Our next one is on September 25th. Thanks so much for your interest and support - you are the embodiment of the creativity, talent and dedication that makes this a wonderful school!

Dawn Lemke
612-926-2466
dawnjosephsarah@comcast.net

Tina Erazmus
612-929-9079
mrsraz1999@yahoo.com No message is selected

Family Fun Walk Rocks Out!

Christin Crabtree has just secured dj Paper Tiger for the Family Fun Walk. The music is family friendy, hip hop flavored, guaranteed to get the party started and our feet moving! Thanks Christin for making it happen!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Armatage Family Fun Walk Fundraiser Begins September 21

Information and Registration packets will be sent home with students on September 21. Four forms inside the clasp envelope are:

- Information/Instruction form (double sided)

- Registration ‘Sneaker’

- Pledge slips – 6 small sneakers per page

- Pledge Tracking Form

The information form outlines details about the event, instructions for parents and students, information on challenges/prizes and a timeline. The fundraising format is to have students gather cash/check pledges in return for focusing on their health by completing a walk around Armatage Park on October 27th. The pledge money they collect will go 100% to programs and services at Armatage School. Our goal for the event is $16,000 – the same amount achieved through merchandise sales by Armatage students last year.

Please return the Registration sneaker by October 4th if your child plans to gather ANY pledges for the event. We want to provide a Walk Day T-shirt to every child who turns in pledge money and need an early count for ordering. PLUS – the first class that returns all of its Registration sneakers will win a prize for each child in that class.

The 25$ pledge slips will help us to track pledge amounts prior to turning in money on October 22. They will also be used as raffle chances to win a prize each week of the fundraiser, so – the more money each child raises, the more slips you turn in and the greater the chances of winning individual prize and class prizes. If you did not receive a Registration packet or are missing any of the forms, please contact Dawn Lemke or Tina Erazmus. Additional packets and forms will be available in the main office.

Wendy's Night Healthy Choice Raffle A Huge Success - Again in October

The new site, a new fundraiser name and lots of enthusiasm for making healthy choices made for a wildly fun Wendy's Night,September 18th. The lucky winner of the cool blue Razor scooter was Spencer Selander of Room 113. His name was chosen by an honorary student, Hank Simacek, a senior who lives near the Yorktown Wendy's and who braved an enitre hour with us. The bucket was overflowing with entries so we will keep the focus on Healthy Choices and repeat the raffle again in October. Thanks to Tracy Lawson for sharing Wendy's time with the Fundraiser and raising awareness and excitement about it.

We Have A Name: ARMATAGE FAMILY FUN WALK!

This is the Fall fundraising event name, created and voted on by Armatage students. The Name Challenge was met by the class of Ms. Lingen, Room 109, whose entry was chosen from many wonderful and creative nominations from Armatage students. Thanks to the teachers who helped the kids come together to meet this challenge and give the fund raiser a great name. Ms Lingen’s class will be awarded a healthy breakfast, provided to them in class by the PTA during the week of September 24th, and a certificate of achievement. Great work everyone!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Kick Off Dinner Coming Together

Many thanks to intrepid coordinator Pam McCarthy-Kern who has arranged for the following donations for the Carb-Load Kick Off dinner:

Desserts from Cafe Maude (macaroons and mini scones)
Pasta Sauce and Cheese Bread from Lake Harriet Pizza
Carrots and Dip from Lund's (pending but we don't know how they can resist our Pam!)

Salad, dressing, noodles and beverage donations are still in the works.

Awesome work, Pam!!!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Hey! What is that Fun Walk anyway?!

Fall Fundraiser Details

Cash pledges for a Walk-a-thon are replacing cash catalog sales

Students will:
- pledge to walk on October 27th
- ask people they know for cash pledges to support their walk
- record, collect and store pledge information and money in a special walk envelope
- turn in the envelope with pledges and money throughout the weeks leading up to the walk for chances to win prizes

Challenges with prize opportunities will be made to the students to encourage pledge gathering, create enthusiasm and promote health awareness.

A pre-Walk Dinner will be held October 26th to raise additional donations and build excitement about the walk. Pre-sales tickets will offer reduced dinner prices.

Walk Day on October 27th will be held at Armatage Park - outside if nice, inside the Park building if not. Students who walk will get T-shirts. Health related booths, giveaways and activities will also be available.

With catalog or other merchandise sales, only 50% of all profits generated by Armatage students actually went to the school. With this event, ALL money collected in pledges and dinner sale will go 100% towards Armatage school and its students!!!!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

HELP WANTED

Planning for the new fall fundraiser is well underway. Some highlights of this event:

Event naming contest (winning class gets breakfast!), Walk of Shoes, Challenge board, Wendy's Night Go Healthy Challenge, all-school kick-off assembly, and spirit week. Please go to the blog at www.armatagefunwalk.blogspot.com for more details on this great event.

Through catalogue sales, students and families have typically raised $16,000 for our school. This money has supported ongoing school events, provided books and equipment for classrooms, paid for buses for field trips and Art Adventure and has helped meet the cost of specialists (such as for reading and math). Here's the catch: in order for Armatage to have received $16,000, our kids actually had to sell $32,000 worth of product. That's a lot of wrapping paper!

Wouldn't it be nice to see all that money go to Armatage instead? Eventually, we hope it will. For this first year with the revolutionary new event, we're setting our Grand Goal at $16,000. And if we meet that goal, Joan Franks has agreed to accept a special challenge! (More on that later!)

What we need NOW are people who can spend two weeks or so contacting potential corporate sponsors. Here's our hit list:


REI

Dick’s (Toni Locke)

Whole Foods

Target

General Mills (Nancy Luna)

Yoplait

Super Value

Land O’Lakes

Kemps

3M

Polaris

Cargill

Best Buy

Park Nicollet

Medtronic

Blue Cross

Health Partners

Fairview

St. Jude Medical

United Health

Children’s Hospital

Heart Association

American Diabetes Association

Dairy Council

Third Lair Demo

Radio Disney

Eric’s Bikes

Penn Cycle

Hoigaard’s

Nike

We plan to approach neighborhood businesses as well and will announce that list early next week. What we're looking for is money for our school, of course. But this event is not just a fundraiser. It's also a chance to teach our children and our community about good health and habits that can last a lifetime. If you work at any of these companies -- or one we might have missed -- and would be interested in helping us to request either money for our school or contributions of gross quantities of items that are health or fitness related (pedometers, first aid kits, water bottles, etc.) that we can use as prizes or give-aways at the event, please contact Tina Erazmus at mrsraz1999@yahoo.com or Dawn Lemke at dawnjosephsarah@comcast.net. We would love to have any of the above companies set up an information table at the event as well.

If you don't have the time to make calls, but can put us in touch with the right person, that would be a great help. If you don't know anyone personally but are willing to make some calls, that's a great help too. Our goal is to raise not just money, but awareness too, build community and have a great time! WE NEED YOUR HELP to get there!

Thank you for your time and attention,

Fun Walk Committee: Chris Blumenfeld, Nan Carlson, Christin Crabtree, Tina Erazmus, Pam McCarthy-Kern, Dawn Lemke, Nikki Lindberg, Toni Locke, Daena Stearns...YOU?

September 4th Meeting Minutes

Highlights: Dates and procedures set for naming contest and walk of shoes, wendy's night on the 18th of september. Next meeting set for September 11 on the patio at Cafe Maude, 6:30 with refreshments. Corporate sponsor hitlit developed.

Meeting Minutes
September 4, 2007
Park and Rec Art Room
Present: Chris Blumenfeld, Nan Carlson, Tina Erazmus, Dawn Lemke, Nikki Lindberg, Toni Locke

RECAP PAST WEEK
Nan will send a copy of the walk zone map to Tina (done)

Orange will be the paper color of choice. Check with Julie Millikan about ordering reams of paper of color through corporate account with Staples. (done. Julie will order paper for us.)

Nan will send Joan an e-mail letting her know the minutes have been posted to the blog. (done)

Nan gave update on meeting with Joan.

Dawn suggested making a Double Challenge to Joan if we reach the $32k goal. All agreed the Goal of Goals should be $16k for the first year, which was what the school took in from catalogue sales last year.

Renae Kirby taught at school that did a fun walk. Dawn will see if she is available Friday am.

Should we try to sell ad space on the main PTA blog? Nan wondered how many hits the blog was actually getting.

Toni Locke is going to take on ticket sales and presales for the carb load dinner.

NEXT WEEK
The big shoe should go home next week; get to Jeannie by friday ; teachers collect shoe, shoes go in pta mailbox

Kick off contest to name the event; Dawn and Tina will get the letter out; walk committee will vote on it Sept 18 after Wendy’s Night.
Announce winning name over the pa during morning announcements.
Send ½ sheet home with the winning class students, Nikki will do. Send something with your kids if you can’t …”winning certificate”
Ask Jenny Ito to put in the Kanga News: contest to name our new event! Check the blog after Sept 18 for the winning class!

Big Folders go home week of Sept 17th
Nikki needs class list
Schedule Packet Party

Wendy’s Night Sept 18 @ Yorktown , Dawn will get info to Tracy Lawson about fun walk tie-in. (Razor Scooter available for raffle.)

SPONSORSHIPS
Pam talked to Kevin @ Maude: breakfast is a maybe; dessert is a maybe – rather ask him for dessert

Nan will talk to Great Harvest about donating for the healthy breakfast.

Chris suggested contacting Vescio’s for spaghetti donation as well

If you have a contact, please ask for a donation for money, prizes or giveaways
Nan will post to both blogs and send in group e-mail list
Ask for 4 or 5 people to spend 2 weeks tops doing corporate or local fundraising

CORPORATE HIT LIST
REI
Dick’s (Toni Locke)
Whole Foods
Target
General Mills (Nancy Luna)
Yoplait
Super Value
Land O’Lakes
Kemps
3M
Polaris
Cargill
Best Buy
Park Nicollet
Medtronic
Blue Cross
Health Partners
Fairview
St. Jude Medical
United Health
Children’s Hospital
Heart Association
American Diabetes Association
Dairy Council
Third Lair Demo
Radio Disney
Eric’s Bikes
Penn Cycle
Hoigaard’s
Nike

NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESS HIT LIST
Tina will develop this for next week

WE REALLY NEED TURNAROUND TIME FOR TSHIRTS: Nan will call Gee Teez to idea of this and quote.
Parent volunteers get grey Armatage t-shirts

NEXT MEETING:
Tuesday, Maudes 6:30 Nan reserve patio: come have a fabulous cocktail at Maude’s and meet the fun walk committee and learn how you can get involved.

Next Meeting -- Join Us At Maudes!

For the next meeting of the fun walk committee, Maude's owner and good friend of Armatage Kevin Sheehy has reserved for us the patio at Cafe Maude. Come join us at the hottest spot in town to find out the latest on this exciting event. We've figured out what needs to be done. We need YOUR help doing it! Our next two steps are:

1. make contact with corporations and local businesses for sponsorships
2. assemble information packets to send home with kids

Get in on the action! See what else we're doing to tie healthy initiatives to other Armatage events.

Come to Cafe Maude's patio, Tuesday September 11 at 6:30 pm.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Meeting Minutes August 28

Fun Walk Meeting Minutes
Tuesday August 28, 2007
Chris Blumenfeld’s House (5649 Penn Avenue South)
Present: Dawn Lemke and Tina Erazmus, committee chairs, Chris Blumenfeld, Nikki Lindberg, Pam McCarthy-Kern, Daena Stearns, Nan Carlson
Tina and Dawn presented the event timeline

INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION

Info flyers will be available at Open House, Tina will make copies

Nan will verify with Pam Durand when the first Wednesday envelope will be going home.

Event intro flyer will go out in the 2nd wed envelope with sneaker “I’m walking for Armatage” must be signed by parent to be valid

Fun walk packets will go home _______.

Tina will have flyers copied for Curriculum Night

Nan will give Dawn and Tina healthy kids info from National PTA Office that they can use to incorporate into promotional literature

PROMOTIONS

2nd week of school: kick off naming contest
Names submitted by September 14th
Leadership Council will select winning name (without looking at room numbers)

Winning classroom will be served healthy breakfast by event committee/parents (try to get donations from Great Harvest, etc.) week of Sept 28

School Event Tie-Ins

Wendy’s Night: Sept 20th
Tickets will be given to each child who makes a healthy choice. They can put their names on the tickets then a name will be drawn for razor scooter prize – make sure info goes out in advance

Wendy’s Night: October
Coloring contest and healthy tip: prizes awarded for best coloring and best healthy tip (such as how would you groove your body?)

Assembly: first week of October
Have permission from Joan to do assembly in the lower gym
Need to ask Julie Railsback if she would like to lead the assembly in a yoga demonstration. Other options are a personal trainer at the Southdale Y named Tiffany and Tina’s mother, who teaches yoga also at the Southdale Y.
Recruit an athletic celebrity or sports team/mascot to appear. Gather leads from PTA members.

School Spirit Week: October 22-26
Have permission from Joan to create dress-up days as long as it does not get wild. No crazy hair or anything that gets the kids distracted. Keep the focus on things that are germain to getting exercise. Sports day, workout wear day, sweats day, etc. Run all ideas past Joan first

Lunch with Crunch?
who knows the T’wolves? 2 hours for lunch?

Pledge Tracking
Nikki will make a Foster Poster with our fundraising goal on the finish line. She will make a Foster to move along to the finish line.
Each info packet will include an 8.5X11 sheet with 8 “walkin’ Fosters” on it that the kids will be instructed to cut out and return weekly as pledges are collected.
Ticket buckets from the carnival will be repurpsed and labeled by Nikki to be placed in each classroom (22 classrooms) for the sole purpose of collecting these pledge strips. Pledge strips will need to be signed by parents.
Daena will collect buckets on Friday afternoons and keep track of incoming pledges and move Foster closer to his goal.

Challenges
Need to create challenge board for some prominent location of the school.
Challenges need to be accepted to be posted.
Joan Franks will accept any reasonable challenge, such as wearing a silly hat the Monday after the walk if we meet our fundraising goal or walking backwards all day, etc.

FUN WALK PACKETS
Will include the following

The inter-office type envelope with lines on the front for recording pledges. If these cannot be donated or purchased in the desired format, they can be made.

Official registration form, including name, room number, t-shirt size, fundraising goal, walking goal, personal challenges (accepted)

Complete explanation of event: what, why, how (if you raised $32k selling product, let’s try raising that much money having fun and being healthy)

Explain challenges and incentives, different levels of achievement: gold, silver, bronze Olympic champion, sponsor; financial and physical achievement, etc.
Include a “sample rap” children and parents can use when approaching sponsors
Encourage parents to be healthy and safe, doing this with their kids not the kids alone

DONATIONS

Corporate Giving

Dawn reported that the Star Tribune no longer has a foundation or giving anymore. She was directed to Achieve Minneapolis, with whom Armatage already has a relationship. She spoke with someone at Achieve who was very generous with good advice but said they would not make a monetary contribution.

Nan will talk to Jenny Ito about devising a flyer about where the PTA money goes to help convince sponsors of our relevance

Chris pointed out that as a 501(c)3, we can issue charitable contribution receipts

There was a conversation about Impact Minneapolis that I missed

Need people to knock on doors in the neighborhood: Grid out the neighborhood.

Chris said this had been done years ago for the silent auction. She will see if she can find that information

Why should neighborhood businesses support our school? Because Armatage School is one of THE success stories in MPS, period. We are the reason that stable families stay in the city, in the neighborhood. We’re the reason that our neighborhood is not crime addled and unpredictable.

Someone mentioned a weekly e-mail service that goes to every school district alumni that we might be able to tap into called the “Weekly Hotline.” Nan will ask Pam about it.

NEXT WEEK’S MEETING: SEPTEMBER 4TH AT PARK AND REC ART ROOM
Putting together a team to attack corporations including corporate wishlist, neighborhood targets

Daena has taken on role of bean counter

MATERIALS WE NEED TO PRODUCE:

Volunteer Sign Up Sheet

Contact Local Business to Donate Goods and Money: (4)

Follow up calls to corporations regarding contributions of goods or money: (4)

Assembling Info Packets: (5)

Hand out flyers at curriculum night: (3)

Contacting sports teams/mascots to attend assembly: (4)

Writing press releases and other media contact: (1)

Raffle Coordinators: (2)

Kick off dinner decorations and set up: (6)

Walk Event Set Up: (8)

Shoes
“I’m walking for Armatage!”
Child signature, parent signature
Please cut and color and return with your Wednesday envelope

Poster For Open House
Corporate sponsor letters

Pam: Building Permit for dinner and walkathon (requires the presence of an engineer)

Check with Emily Winter, Southdale Y and GeeTeez about Tshirts