Hutchison Farm Elementary Center St. South Riding, VA Fax: UPCOMING EVENTS: Nov 18-22: American Education Week Nov 22: Bingo Night Nov 27-29: Holiday Dec 3: PTA Mtg 7pm Dec 4: ASEP Winter registration opens Dec 5: Reflections Awards Event 6:30pm Dec 7: Winterfest 9am Volume 10 November 2013 HFES PTA Website: BOX TOPS Campaign Off to Great Start Congratulations to our Huskies for a strong first quarter start in our Box Tops challenge, submitting over 8,000 Box Tops! Top Classes for the month – Mrs. Dickshinski, Ms. Carrig, and Ms. McClellen. Next challenge deadline is Nov. 29 so keep those Box Tops coming in! Any questions? Contact BINGO NIGHT Our Fall Bingo night is next Friday, November 22 nd and it promises to be loads of fun with terrific prizes and, for the first time, pizza for sale! In addition, we have lots of raffle prizes this year, including a Tae Kwon Do Birthday Party courtesy of Top Kick and a teeth whitening kit courtesy of Dr. Kravitz! Our 5 th graders will be selling bingo daubers as a fundraiser for their legacy gift so support them and look like a professional bingo player in the process! Drinks and snacks will also be available for purchase in addition to the pizza. Our coordinators have put in a lot of time and effort to make this a special night so come on out for a great family fun night! See the separate Bingo flyer in this week’s Friday folder for additional details. Afterschool Enrichment Program (ASEP) Updates Our first ASEP session has been a big success, netting the PTA over $3,000 and enrollment for the Winter Session begins soon! We will have some returning favorites as well as a number of new course offerings for the January 14-March 6 Winter Session. Registration opens on December 4 th at 7:30am and course descriptions and schedules can be viewed now at Need help paying for your child’s class? Earn free tuition by volunteering to assist those teacher-led classes indicating a need for assistants (applications for assistants due by 11/24). Alternatively, contact Iris Maluka, HFES Parent Liaison, to see if you qualify for a scholarship. We also need volunteers to help with the check-in process. This is a critical component of ASEP as it insures that all enrolled students are accounted for and are able to get to their classes in a timely manner. It is only a 45 minute commitment each week. Please contact the ASEP coordinator, Karen Grant, at if you are willing to help. Popular PTA Programs May Be In Jeopardy Our primary PTA fundraising effort, the Direct Donation Campaign (DDC), is well short of our goal this year as less than half of the HFES families have participated. The DDC provides critical funding for the numerous PTA sponsored activities and programs throughout the year and allows us to forego traditional fundraising. These funds are used for school assemblies, supporting the guided reading program, funding programs such as IXL, helping students in financial need as well as putting on popular events such as Mileage Club, Winterfest, and Bingo Nights. If the shortfall is not bridged, future programs could be jeopardized and we will have to begin charging for events or conducting more labor intensive fundraising. Please, if you have not yet given, consider donating the suggested $25 (or whatever is comfortable for your family) for each child you have enrolled at HFES. Contact Deanna Beach for information on how to donate.

==================================================================================== Winterfest will be held on Saturday December 7* from 9-11:30am so mark your calendars if you haven’t already! This is a fun morning for the entire family – free breakfast, winter crafts, and holiday shopping just for the kids! This special event is run exclusively by parents and we need your help! We are looking for volunteers to help with the breakfast, assist children at craft tables, and man stations in the Secret Holiday Gift Shop. Volunteer forms were sent out in Friday Folders. Please fill out the form and sent it back to school with your child or go to the Winterfest tab on the PTA website to use SignUp Genius. Please contact our tireless Winterfest coordinator, Sandra Wilfong, at with any questions or if you need help signing up. *snow date Saturday December 14 ========================================================================== We will be holding a Reflections Awards Event for all entrants on December 5 th from 6:30-8pm for our creative Husky students who entered the PTA art competition this year. Hutchison Farm had more than twice the number of entries as last year in this national competition! We will need help displaying the projects, setting up refreshments, and cleanup afterwards. Please contact our Reflections Coordinator, Darlene Darden at if you are willing to help with this event. ========================================================================== Our inaugural Multi-Cultural Celebration will be held in March 2014 and planning is already underway! Thank you to those who have already committed to helping out! The most urgent need currently is for someone to oversee and organize the Entertainment and Music session. Please contact Madhaven or Hema to find out how you can be part of this inaugural event at HFES! or ==================================================================================== Attention MIGHTY Husky Men! If you are interested in participating in the MIGHTY Husky program, please sign up online today as there are only 33 days available for the school year! ==================================================================================== The 8 th Annual Stone Ridge 5K/1K Race for Education on October 19 th had another record breaking turnout with over 1550 registrants! Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped make the race a success and to Amy Miller for serving as our intrepid coordinator for the event. Because of their hard work Hutchison Farm will receive a portion of the race proceeds. Congratulations to all of the runners and walkers – it was great to see so many familiar faces out on the course! Thank you for supporting our Spirit Night at Manhattan Pizza on October 15 th ! For participating and showing your Husky Pride we received a whopping $450 donation from Manhattan Pizza! Thank you to Kelley Crisci for organizing the event – we’re looking forward to future Spirit Nights! A huge shout out to Karen Grant, our ASEP coordinator, who got the inaugural ASEP session up and running so smoothly! We would also like to thank all of the volunteers who helped with the check-in process each week and to our awesome teachers for offering such terrific classes this session! Please thank these folks when you see them! We Want YOUTO Get Involved!