OUR THEME FOR THE YEAR IS:
To Boldly Go Where No Other PTA Has Gone Before
Our Region Vice President is:
Do you have some interesting news that your PTA/PTSA wants to share with the rest of the region and Indiana PTA. Send it to your Region VP and she will forward it to the webmaster.
Central Region Dates to Remember:
October 25 - Part 2
Warren Education and Community Center
10th Street and Post Road
Please remember, if your council provides leadership training for
you that's wonderful, however attending council training does not meet the
requirement on the president's report for attending state sponsored
trainings. More information will be provided soon.
New to Indiana PTA and/or don't know what region you are in:
Click here for the county listing per region
Below are the reprints from the units who earned a Bright Ideas Certificate for the Convention of 2006 and 2005.
Douglas MacArthur Elementary PTA
Every year, Douglas MacArthur enlists the help of our families to provide gifts and clothing to needy families at Christmas time. We have always prided ourselves on the fact that we have been able to provide assistance to our very own students and their families. Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen circumstances with timing and new township rules regarding the assistance provided by our social work department, we were unable to continue our usual process. As life teaches us to turn lemons into lemonade, our PTA came up with a brilliant idea that was just as helpful to our community. The program called Angels and Elves teamed up with the Indianapolis Children's Guardian Home to provide children living at this facility with gifts at Christmas time. The children living at the guardian's home have been removed from their original home due to reasons of abuse. So, we asked the families of MacArthur to collect tags and purchase the toy that was indicated on the tag. We were fortunate enough to collect over 300 toys and gifts to provide to these deserving children. The Guardian's Home houses anywhere from 50-75 children ranging in age from 2-18 which would provide at least 4-6 toys each child. The Guardian's Home provides transportation for each of these children to attend their original home school so that they do not have to adapt to another new environment. Therefore, it is possible that MacArthur has children who are currently living in this facility. Furthermore, we enlisted the help of our Student Council to deliver the toys. A township bus was provided for the 17 students to ride to the Guardian's Home to deliver the toys, and a special tour of the home was given to the Douglas MacArthur students. We are proud of this program because not only did we help make a child's life brighter, but we were able to instill in our children the true meaning of giving.
Hawthorne Elementary PTA
Our PTA sometimes has trouble getting enough adult help or supervision during our Fall Festival. This is especially true at our game booths in the gym. This year, our dean, Pat Patterson, called the high school and asked for Student Council volunteers to help at the Fall Festival. We had twenty students show up to help that day. After filling all of the game booths with high school students, we used several of the student council to help our student council take pictures for the yearbook. The parents that were freed up from supervising in the gym, were able to help in the kitchen, book fair, or enjoy shopping at the craft booths. The student council from the high school enjoyed being able to help and earn community service points as well. Due to this success we had planned to use the student council to help with our Parent's Night Out in December. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the evening due to school closings during the day. We plan to use the student council again at Our Family Bingo Night in March. The Student Council at the high school is a valuable resource our PTA has tapped into.
Jeremiah Gray – Edison Elementary School PTA
In the fall of 2002 JG-E opened, since then we have always tried to have programs that has been for the Students, Family and Staff members. This year we have offered Fun / Food Times.
The Putt Putt Night for our JG-E students, family and Staff members was a huge success. Due to the size of our school, this event was divided into 5 nights. We assigned each house in our school a night to come and play Putt Putt. The cost was very minimal so families really took advantage of this great opportunity. The majority of children had never played Putt Putt prior to this night. It was exciting to watch the students play and learn the rules of Putt Putt. A Hole in One was a big deal and there was a lot of cheering for the lucky player. Even the teachers and our principal played the students – along with some friendly competition, which ended up being on the morning announcements when one the students from 4th grade beat the Principal on two different nights. The students had fun seeing their friends and teachers outside of the School Building . The teachers for each house were in attendance for their house night. It was exciting to see everyone having so much fun.
Our families really appreciated being able to do something as a family but at a cost that was affordable for everyone, our PTA passed along all of the saving to our families. Even the older and younger siblings were included which always makes them feel important and not left out. For these younger siblings this gives them a taste of what to look forward to when they start school. This is just one of the many things we do at JG-E.
Mary Bryan Elementary
At Mary Bryan, we like to let our staff and administration know how much they are appreciated. That is why we have an entire position on our board for staff appreciation. One thing we do for them is to provide a birthday lunch sometime in the month of their birthday. We double up on some months so we may include the staff who celebrate their birthday in the summer. The board member picks one afternoon and sets up a birthday celebration table in the teachers lounge. This includes the whole works! Tablecloths, napkins and a cake of some sort are included! The teachers for whom the lunch is given are sent invitations to come celebrate. The same lunch is served each month. We get a tremendous amount of positive feedback from the staff in appreciation of the special lunch!
Southport High School PTSA –
For the first part of our Membership Drive , we asked businesses in our area for donations for drawings of people who became PTSA members. By donating an item, we would advertise the business on student tv (SPTV), the parent newsletter, the student newsletter and local newspapers. We had three different drawings: one for parents and the community, one for the students and one for the teachers and staff. We had membership tables set up during Registration Week, Back-to-School Night, Home football games and Parent/Teacher Conference Days. By having these drawings, we felt that it brought attention to our membership tables in which we could then talk up PTSA and the benefits of joining. We held the drawings at half-time of a home football game.
For the second part of our Membership Drive , we held a contest between the classes. The class that brought in the highest percentage of members in that class would win a limo ride (paid by PTSA) to Pizza Hut for a pizza buffet (paid by the school) for them and their teacher. I am happy to report that the winning class had 100% participation out of 31 students!
Moorehead Elementary School PTA
At the start of our school year we decided to try a Safety& Carnival Night. We thought it would be great to get the community involved. We contacted Fun Services Carnival. They had Carnival games for children and adults of all ages. There were 12 carnival games in all. Our fifth grade Teachers sold drinks and cookies.
We invited the Sheriffs Dept. and the Fire Dept. they both came. The Fire Dept. brought 200 disaster kits, and passed them all out.
We had a table to get Child ID badges made. We had Hawthorne Wellness Center there to answer questions. The Indiana Blood bank also came.
We needed a lot of help with this event. The PTA went to the Parents Teachers and past students. The students liked seeing the teachers run and playing the games. We had about 20 teachers help and at least that many parents. It was wonderful to see everyone working together and having lots of fun.
We had this event in front of our school so the community would feel free to come and join us, and I'm proud to say they did!
Southport High School PTSA
We feel that our Membership Drive was very successful! The idea behind it was that we wanted to draw attention to our tables. We went to many businesses in our area, presented them with a letter requesting a donation on a copy of our school's letterhead. We asked for any donation, whether big or small from the business. In return, we would advertise their name in many places: whenever we would have a table set up, in the student newsletter, in the parent newsletter and in our display case that showcased all of the many door prizes. The response from the community was tremendous! It was amazing how all the businesses supported the PTSA and our school. We then told everyone that if they became a PTSA member, then they would be entered in our many drawings. We were very visible at many different events. As mentioned earlier, we feel that this was a very successful. The idea was to get everyone's attention in which we did and then we were able to tell them about PTSA and how it was important to become involved at Southport High School , whether by just becoming a member or volunteering or both! Another plus is that we involved the community!
Pleasant Run PTA
Pleasant Run Annual Cultural Fair - On March 19, 2004, the Pleasant Run PTA sponsored its first Cultural Fair. The teachers led the students in researching and examining a particular country. Kindergarten through fifth grade teams focused on a specific subject. Each classroom created a product representing their country. Students and teachers researched Ireland , Japan , Mexico and Nigeria . The kindergarten students provided information about animals, the first grade students examined flags, and second graders studied language and dress, while the third grade students became-aware of religion in the various countries. In addition, the fourth grade students looked at cultural events and the fifth graders researched government. Displays were set-up outside of each classroom. Students made presentations for their parents and guests. During the school day the students were treated to a Young Audience performance pertaining to Japanese song and music. During the evening festivities students and parents enjoyed a performance by Ensamble Folklorico Indianapolis Mexican Folk Dance.
The Indiana State Museum provided trunks highlighting life in Indiana for the cultural fair. The Indiana Historical Society provided a tape titled Hoosiers All which played continuously in the media center. The tape demonstrated the cultural diversity of Indiana . Trunks with clothing and other representative pieces representing the countries were obtained from the Children's Museum. Italian Gardens , Don Victors (Mexican Cuisine) and Chi Chi's local restaurants provided the food for the event.
Several students and parents attended the event. The goal of this event was to provide information about different ethnicities and cultural communities in Indianapolis .
Eastridge Elementary PTA
Eastridge PTA sponsored our first annual Mother/Son event on Friday, January 14, 2005 with great success! The evening started out with pictures as a take home souvenir which showed a giant bingo card as the background. Dinner was served at 6:00 p.m. which included spaghetti, salad, garlic bread and dessert served by the Administrative staff and cooked by our own Principal, Mrs. Conner and the Dean, Mrs. Siefert.
After dinner, several bingo games were played which included a cover all, four corners, cluster bingo and a mother/son combination bingo game. Prizes were awarded for all games which included gift cards to Target and Olive Garden.
The evening ended at 8:30 p.m. with much success and no complaints! Several PTA members and volunteers helped out with setting up the event, serving food and making sure the cafeteria looked as good as it did before the evening started.
Last but not least, this was definitely the most successful event Eastridge has had to date.
© Indiana PTA, 2006 All Rights Reserved
Last updated 05-Jan-2008