Parent participation at our school is needed and greatly appreciated

The staff and parents at our school believe that an effective school is one in which parents and the community support the school, participate in school activities, and actively participate in children's learning by sharing skills and talents. To this end we encourage and value the contributions of parents to the educational life of the students. Assistance is needed in a number of areas, such as:

•    in the library
•    assisting in the intermediate and primary classrooms (reading to children, listening to children read, making learning resources)
•    driving for field trips
•    helping with Food Days and Toonie Pizza Days
•    helping with special events (Dragon Day, Movie Night)
•    helping with school fund-raising activities
•    operating the Early Warning program
•    involvement with Parent Advisory Council

There is always somewhere you can help.  Sometimes we only need an hour or your time here or there, please provide your name if you would like to be notified of volunteering opportunities.  Even if you are unable to volunteer your time during the day, you can come join our discussions and provide your input at our PAC meetings.  Child minding is always provided at these meetings.

Volunteers Needed:

Dixon Early Warning
The Dixon Early Warning Program is in need of volunteers.  This involves coming in 1 morning a week for about 20-30 minutes, listening to the phone messages and verifying that all our children have arrived at school safely.  

This is a Parent Advisory Council (PAC) initiative so without your help we are unable to run the program.  If enough people volunteer to help, we can match people up with job share.  Job sharing would make it possible for you to alternate weeks or months with another parent.

Please leave your name and phone number at the school office or email Susana Bradbury at susana_armon@yahoo.ca if you are interested.

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Toonie Pizza Day Helpers
Serve pizza to our kids.  If you can spare 45 minutes, please meet in the gym @ 11:45am on Toonie Pizza Days for a fun 45 min of pizza slinging sales!  Oct 8, Nov 5, Dec 3, Jan 13, Feb 10, Mar 9, Apr 8, May 11, Jun 8.  
You can choose to come every pizza day or just on months when you are available.  RSVP:  Sally Koldenhof k5family@shaw.ca  if you can make it.  
Jobs include:

• Sell pizza tickets and juice or distribute pizza
• At the end of the rush, clean up gym to be ready for classes
• Take empty pizza boxes to Linus Lane Recycling yard
• Cash counting and submitting is done directly following clean up
• Shopping duties:  ensure there is a supply of approximately 400 100% juice juice-boxes

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Food Days Helpers
Serve lunch to our kids.  If you can spare 60 minutes, please meet in the gym @ 11:15am on Food Days for a frantically fun hour of food day distribution & sales:  pasta, hotdogs, tacos, sushi, etc.!  RSVP: Maria Nokiani marianokiani@gmail.com
Our food day ladies are keenly looking for some folks to shadow them and learn the ropes of this fun and popular monthly event.
Ongoing duties:

• Managing and liaising with Munchalunch.com
• Shopping in advance:  with direction from the food day team shop for items (juice, chips, etc.) & deliver to school
• On food day:  fill the orders for each classroom and deliver

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QSP
Our magazine subscription fundraiser that promotes reading, where most of the ordering is done online.  Subscribers browse catalogues and order online with partial proceeds going to Dixon.  Week of Oct 6th.  
Jobs include:

• Manage the preparation of the QSP hand-out (an information letter stapled to a catalogue), deliver to classrooms
• Troubleshooting, process the few paper orders
• Liase with the QSP sales rep, collect incoming rebate cheques

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Earthquake Prep
Early in the school year, the coordinator will ask for volunteers to come in one morning for 2-4 hours.  During this time the classroom earthquake bins are restocked for the coming year.  Juice, water and snacks are checked for expiration dates and rotated as needed.  The same goes for batteries and anything else that may need replacing.  All supplies are provided, parents are just needed to go through the various kits and replace as needed.  Shopping duties may be shared to include:  water, juice and Nutrigrain bars for entire school population.  

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Movie Nights
Parents are needed for a variety of easy jobs:

• Prep:  photocopying posters (provided), putting them up around the school.  Photocopying tickets for the DVD sale, ordering pizza and arranging for payment.
• Advertising for bakers and baking for the bake sale - cookies, muffins, cupcakes, all nut-free treats welcome.  
• At the event:  work at the bake sale or pizza concession, run admission door, clean up

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Bakers for Movie Nights
We need baking stars for our famiy movie night fundraisers.  The bake sale is a yummy and popular offering at our movie nights and we need your help.  All nut-free baking is appreciated.  Please email Diana diana.white@live.ca

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Craft Fair
Wednesday November 18, 2015
The PAC heads up the annual Dixon Craft Fair.  There are many many opportunities to volunteer for this event, from short jobs to bigger ones...we need your help to pull this community building event together.  Watch for a newsletter to hear about the meeting to get things underway.
Volunteers are needed for a variety of jobs:

• Heading up one of the various planning committees:  these include selling tables to vendors, organizing and staffing the bake sale, organizing and staffing the pizza and water sales, organizing the cake walk, managing volunteers, promotions, raffle and wine auction.
• Volunteering for one of the committees:  distributing flyers in the neighbourhood before the sale (a great job to do with your kids in your neighbourhood - invite the neighbours!) helping set up in the afternoon of the sale, baking for the bake sale, helping work the bake sale on the night, baking cakes for the cake walk, helping run the cake walk, selling pizza, selling raffle tickets before the event &/ on the night of the event, helping man the wine auction table.
• Helping clean up at the end, ensuring tables are put away, floors are swept etc. 

Please contact Karen fisher-hagel@shaw.ca if you are able to help in any capacity.  Thank you!

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Shopping
Several of the PAC activities involve shopping in advance for supplies.  This is a job that can be done on your own schedule, in time for the event.  Receipts are submitted and funds reimbursed in an easy process.

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Dragonflies Gardening Club
Weeding, weeding, weeding, garden tidy up, watering, cutting back, pruning (wither with a group of students or without)...always lots needing done.  Please contact the school office to get involved.

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Library
Come into the library, meet Mme Borthwick and hear how you can help.
Book Fair - held 2-3 times/year in our library, the Book Fair is an opportunity for Dixon students and families to shop for books at great prices while benefitting Dixon's library.  Please contact Michelle Biancofiore at benandmichelle@telus.net to volunteer for a 30-45 minute shift selling books to the student before or after school or during the lunch hour.

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Classroom Volunteers
Most teachers have lots of little jobs that they would LOVE someone to take on for them!  Some are as simple as taking home "hurt" books and taping up rips and tears, others may be a weekly cleaning of various class items or monthly organizing of toys/books/other!  Teachers are usually very grateful for offers of help, and will likely have all sorts of things you can do to help out!  Don't forget field trips - often they can't go ahead without parent help!

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Special Event Helpers
Throughout the year we will hold special events that need extra hands to make happen.  A good example of this is the annual Dixon Craft Fair, but there are many more.  If you would be interested in being on our special events helper list please email us at dixonpac@gmail.com

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Bring a friend &/ make new friends!  And note ALL jobs have mentors to provide guidance!

Many hands make light work.  Thanks for supporting your school.
Please contact Karen at fisher-hagel@shaw.ca OR Diana at diana.white@live.ca for further details.