By Danielle Ray
Despite a global pandemic, members of the Houghton Elementary and Chocksett Middle schools’ PTOs have remained active during the school year, working hard to host fundraisers, monthly meetings, and more.
“As a PTO, we’ve continued to have monthly meetings to keep a connection between parents and the school,” said Chocksett PTO Co-Chair Sara Kruger. “We wanted to do our part to support the staff and students in any way, especially during these challenging times. We’ve hosted various fundraisers and family events and we’ve also shown our appreciation for all of the teachers and staff with virtual and tangible gifts.”
This past fall the PTO hosted the Chocksett Challenge, this time adapted to a virtual 5K, raising $5,000.
“We encouraged students and staff to individualize their 5K by walking, running, hiking or rolling through a 5K to support Chocksett,” said Chocksett PTO Co-Chair Bridget D’Amelio.
They also worked with Meadowbrook Orchards and hosted a pie sale atThanksgiving.
“We were excited to support a local business and we raised over $400,” Kruger said.
The Chocksett PTO has hosted a restaurant night every month, where families dine at a featured restaurant on a specific date, and a portion of the proceeds goes towards the PTO. They have raised $500 working with Froze Zone, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and Oli’s Italian Eatery. Next up is Sterling’s own Davis BBQ on March 10.
“We’ll continue to host restaurant nights each month,” D’Amelio said. “We are working with other local restaurants for additional dates later this spring in April and May.”
The PTO will be hosting a spring flower sale in April, offering 10-inch and 12-inch hanging flower baskets and patio pots of various flowers and plants. Plants will be available to pick up just before Mother’s Day.
“We have been pleasantly surprised by how much families and students have supported us this year,” Kruger said. “We know many have lost jobs and we expected lower fundraising because of it, but those who have been able to support have really stepped it up and been extremely generous.”
D’Amelio said they have funds set aside for the sixth-grade ecology school trip, “whenever that is able to occur,” and the PTO will help fund the eighth-grade graduation in June. They have been able to support some teacher mini grants for additional books that have been needed with the funds raised this school year, since students cannot share materials.
“We also helped to replenish teacher libraries since the abrupt shut down last spring resulted in loss of books from their personal collections,” Kruger said. “We have been able to do additional teacher appreciation activities to support the teachers’ extra efforts this year.”
Kruger and D’Amelio said it is important for them and the other hardworking PTO members to continue doing what they do to support the school and students during the pandemic.
“Even though this year started out very uncertain, our PTO wanted to make sure that we kept things as normal for the students as we could,” D’Amelio said. “Part of the virtual fundraising was to create an online community and stay connected to the school. We also wanted to make sure we were able to fund the needs of online and hybrid learning so that the kids could get the most out of both.”
Houghton PTO members, all of whom are co-chairs, have also been busy during the pandemic, holding monthly meetings via Zoom since the start of the school year and organizing events and fundraisers as well.
“We continue to keep in close contact with [Houghton Principal Tony] Cipro, each other, and have planned some appropriate socially distant fundraisers and events,” said Houghton PTO Co-Chair Jennifer Mason.
They held the popular annual mums fundraiser last fall, which netted $1,500, and like Chocksett PTO, have hosted monthly restaurant nights, Dine to Donate with Texas Roadhouse, earning around $120.
“Box tops submission continues to earn for us, we’re at about $100 this year,” Mason said. “We also hope to have some type of book fair but are still uncertain at this time if it’s possible.”
Houghton PTO was able to support the purchase of Scholastic magazines this school year for all K-4 students, which is normally funded by the book fair – last spring’s book fair was cancelled.
Mason said they are still hoping to hold the annual Booster Fun Run event this year, one of their biggest fundraisers.
“We’ve had to postpone as previous planned dates conflicted with expected changes in the remote and hybrid models,” Mason said, adding that they postponed it in November when the students were supposed to transition to hybrid learning and again in January when they finally did.
“We wanted time for everyone to adjust before holding the event,” she said.
Mason said they are not getting the same numbers participating in PTO events and fundraisers this school year that they typically do because of the pandemic.
“Participation is definitely down this year, but that is expected,” she said. “Parents and teachers are dealing with a lot of extra this year and I think everyone is doing their best.”
Funds raised this year have mostly been funneled into technology for teachers and students to help them with remote and hybrid learning, which “has been key this year”, Mason said.
“The money we raise each year purchases a number of technology programs the teachers and students use, which is especially important this year,” she said. “We anticipate those programs to be needed next year as well, therefore we are doing what we can to be able to provide that technology next year.”
Mason said they are thankful for the continued support from families, students and school staff during these challenging times.
“We appreciate and thank the parents and teachers who have continued to support the PTO and any fundraisers we have held this year,’ she said. “When we return to normalcy, we look forward to getting back to funding enrichment programs for the students and mini-grant requests from the teachers. Also, anything needed by the teachers or students to help them when returning to normalcy, we’d want to be able to support.”
For more information follow Chocksett Middle School PTO and Houghton Elementary PTO on Facebook and Instagram.