Project Playground Update
We are wrapping up week five of Project Playground: $50k for Play! Our staff really lead the way this week! With their $1,000 Matching Monday pledge, even more staff donations that came in on Monday, and then a retiree, Marlene Beck, who made a Slide Super Star level investment this week our staff’s generosity is unbelievable. And as we went to press, we received a Recess Hero level donation from Mia Bennardi taking our total to $16,265 as we head into week six!
Our students are currently competing in the Change Challenge, where the winning classrooms who bring in the most will receive their own outdoor Beach Day Party. And if the school-wide goal is met, there will be an inflatable obstacle course at Field Day. These are high stakes, Trojans! As our students bring in their pennies, dimes and quarters, it is a good reminder for all of us how no matter the size of a donation, when joined together, make a huge impact. $5, $10, whatever you can give to this project is genuinely appreciated and will be put to great use. Our WLPS PTO will be bringing another BIG Matching Monday next week, so those smaller donations are doubled. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for more information.
In addition to donating funds, there are plenty of other ways you can help.
- Spread the Word: The crowdfunding tool we use, Pledgecents, says on average each share on social media raises $11. We currently have 1,817 followers on our page who are part of our Facebook community and have had 92 individuals, businesses or groups invest in Project Playground. If every single one of our followers shared our Pledgecents page, given that stat, we could raise $20,000 there alone! Please, please share what we are striving to make happen for our students and children in our community on social media, in conversation, through email, at your place of work, anywhere.
- Get your hands dirty: A cool part of this project is it will be a community build. Mark July 21, 2018 on your calendar if you are up for lending some muscle and enthusiasm to build the new playground. We will provide more info on how to sign up.
Thank you to all our investors and those spearheading the fundraisers. We will continue to report on the exciting progress of Project Playground! Meanwhile, visit our Pledgecents page HERE.
Welcome New Members to the Trojan Team: iMacs
Within the business and technology courses at WLHS, it is our mission to prepare students for the real-world and provide access to industry-standard equipment and software. Within the graphic design field, Apple corners the market.
Thanks to the Career Tech Education Perkins grant, we have a brand new lab at WLHS filled with iMacs. The main purpose of this lab is for our students to explore graphic design using the Adobe Suite, including Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Premier Pro. Students will create album covers, how-to videos, booklets and product labels this year alone.
“We felt our students needed exposure to iMacs. They need to be competitive and have working knowledge of both PCs and Macs,” Karen Sterzik, Business Tech Teacher and Technology Coordinator said.
Welcome to the team, iMacs.
WLFEE Recipients
Join me in congratulating the following staff members who received a Spring WLFEE (Whitmore Lake Foundation for Educational Excellence) grant. I look forward to seeing all the new projects come to life to benefit our students, furthering our mission of providing exceptional, personalized education.
You can find out more about WLFEE, their mission and how to support them by heading to http://wlfee.org. They are hosting an upcoming fundraiser, their annual WLFEE Zumbathon on May 12, with all proceeds going towards building a new playground at Whitmore Lake Elementary School. You can find details on the event HERE. In addition to a two-hour Zumba class featuring 20 instructors from around the state of Michigan, there will be a silent auction and raffle with outstanding prizes including four Disney Hopper passes!