Burning Tree Elementary School PTA

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Become a PTA Member

PTA Membership is available to parents and guardians of any student enrolled in the school, administration & staff, as well as any community members concerned about local education.
Membership dues support educational programs for our children such as Science Fair and cultural arts programs. They also support fun events for the entire family such as International Night and Spring Fair. Each membership comes with a free copy of the BT Directory and Handbook, and members are entitled to vote on BTES PTA policies and other PTA matters.
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NEWS FLASHES

WANTED: COMMITTEE CHAIRS FOR 2009-2010

Want to get more involved in your child's school and the PTA? Why not consider co-chairing one of the many great events and/or programs that the PTA organizes? Some of the programs that need one or more co-chairs for next year are listed below (more may be added). For more information or to co-chair, please contact this year's VP for the Program or contract Cindy Campbell, PTA President-elect (CampbellHannegan@comcast.net). If there is a committee you are interested in, but you do not see it on the list, please call the appropriate chair or Cindy Campbell to learn more about it! Thanks for your involvement in our children's school!
For descriptions of these programs, please refer to the BTES PTA Directory.

School Based Programs, Karen van Loon
Back TO School Picnic
Creative Writing Club
FLES - French only
Newspaper, Ribbit Report
Fundraising, Ellie Abramowitz
Fill Our Pond
Plant Sale
Spring Fair
Spirit Shop
Community Based Programs, Vicki Herson
Fannie Mae Walk for the Homeless
Volunteers, Elissa Ginksky
Child Care for PTA meetings
Landscape and ground
Lunch and Recess Volunteers
Room Parent Coordinator for K-2


THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU

What an incredible fundraising year we had at Burning Tree this year. Many thanks to all of the co-chairs, volunteers, teachers and families who supported our events throughout the year. Your participation and enthusiasm made it possible to fund many wonderful school activities such as the Back-to-School Picnic, Arts Festival, and Cultural Arts, and to provide assistance to our sister school, Broad Acres. Your support also makes it possible to purchase teacher and community “wish list” items that greatly improve the school and the educational experience of our children here at BTES. Much appreciation goes to the following people for their willingness to co-chair our 2008-09 fundraisers. It was a pleasure working with such dedicated and energetic people.

Many thanks to the following co-chairs:
Bingo Night: Laura Weiss, Tracey Fitzsimmons, Barb Butrica & Sharon Tompkins
Book Fair: Sharon Curry, Elizabeth Padgett & Rachel Bottone
Dine Outs: Nancy Sandler
Fill Our Pond Campaign: Julie Garcia, Surya Shah, Erin Deric, Cindy Campbell, Lisa Sanfuentes & Ellie Abramowitz
Original Artworks: Britta Battaile & Marianne Katinas
Plant Sale: Lisa Baker & Mary Kunst
Sally Foster: Kristen Farren & Jamie Pierce
Shop for our School: Amy Lenkin
Spirit Shop: Laura Weiss
Spring Fair: Tami Chambers, Laura Weiss, Cindy Campbell & Ellie Abramowitz

I’ve enjoyed serving as VP for Fundraising and hope you will continue to be generous with your time and support for our incoming VP for Fundraising, Julie Garcia. Julie will be an energetic and very hardworking addition to the Board! Thanks again and I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing summer!

Ellie Abramowitz, VP for Fundraising

Thanks for Volunteering! So as the school year ends (how did that happen so quickly), I would like to take this last opportunity to thank everyone for all they have done throughout the year, but most importantly for this past month. The end of the school year is a notoriously busy time and each year it seems to get busier, with this year as no exception.

A very big thank you goes to Cheryl Liu, the School Supply Kits Coordinator. She has already gotten our children on the road to an organized successful 2009/10 school year. Thanks as always for thinking ahead.

Thank you again, to the women who coordinate all of the Staff Appreciation Lunches, especially the most recent lunch on May 6. Kathy Chelst and Beth Martino make “catering” a lunch look easy. The teachers always appreciate their effort, that of everyone who helps out that day, as well as all of the families who donate the delicious food.

Thank you also to the continued Herculean effort of the grounds committee. I am always amazed by how beautiful the grounds of Burning Tree look. Thank you to all of the volunteers who seem to always be at school pulling weeds, raking mulch and working on the beds. Your efforts truly show.

Elissa Ginsky, VP for Volunteers

Thank you to the fantastic BTES students and parents for your generous support and contributions to all of the Community Based Programs throughout the school year. Together we accomplished an enormous amount within our community.

A special thank you to everyone who supported the Food For Kids Program. Throughout the school year, our children donated over 1,500 pounds of food for the Capitol Area Food Bank. The Food Bank was so pleased by our effort they have asked that next year our students teach other schools how run a successful food drive.

In October our students all participated in the Fannie Mae Walk for the Homeless led by Julie Zebrak. A huge thank you also goes to Mrs. Erdrich and Mr. Tark who led this worthy event and to Ms. Whalen for her help in coordinating the event.

Over the Winter Holidays Julie Garcia brightened the holiday season for scores of local holiday children through our annual Adopt-an-Angel program which matches needy children with Burning Tree families who buy them holiday gifts.

In March the students spent their lunch break participating in “1000 Sandwich Day” to benefit Martha’s Table. The students spent part of their lunch break preparing sandwiches for distribution and ultimately prepared over 1500 sandwiches! A special note of thanks goes to our co-chairs Britta Battaile and Ruth McDonald for organizing this important activity.

Our sister school, Broad Acres Elementary in Silver School benefited from our various collections throughout the year, financial donations from the PTA, and collaborations. Sheryl Isaaks, Minki Chatterji and Wynne Sitrin did an amazing job organizing our assistance and working with the leadership at Broad Acers for this significant program.

Broad Acres also benefited from the hard work of Ann Ruskowski and Cathi Colonna who collected all of those Box Tops for Education and turned those tops into money to support our sister school.

Our year wrapped up with the exciting Mini-Relay for Life led by Elissa Ginsky where the children walked during two consecutive days of their recess to promote awareness and commemorate those touched by cancer. A special note of thanks also goes to Ms. Loftus for her enthusiastic participation.

A special thank you to Doreen Rosenthal who served as our School Board/County Council Liaison, and to our phenomenal PTA President Lisa Sanfuentes and President Elect Cindy Campbell who gave their support and guidance to each of these important events.

Vicki Herson, VP for Community Based Programs

My job was easy this year, very easy even. The chairs and co-chairs of the school based programs accepted the job, did their thing and it was fabulous every time. A big Thank You to:

Joan Wolf-Chiaverini for Running the AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS and the CULTURAL ARTS ASSEMBLIES. I have no idea how you find time to do all these things, and when your eldest leaves BT, you better adopt some kids in BT (you are welcome to pretend mine is yours).

Robin Gonzales and Nancy Samit. The BACK TO SCHOOL PICNIC was a blast! Thank you for making sure all had fun.

Rosanna Morrison from CREATIVE WRITING CLUB. Thank you for helping the kids produce another more than great Blazing Pencils. It will be really hard to fill your shoes!!

Ira Feldman and his ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE team for making sure our kids are prepared to protect our planet. The PTA went (almost completely) paperless!

Sujata Pasic from the FAMILY TO FAMILY – New Families program. Please realize the new families are ever so grateful for the kind greetings they all received.

Julie Zebrak from FAMILY TO FAMILY – Kindergarten. The playdates for the kids (and parents) entering Kindergarten were a great help. Thank you for making sure all new K parents got all the info they needed.

Jennifer Katz, Heidi Grunwald and Dale Sorcher. Absolutely silly to say this already, but TIA for what is probably going to be a great celebrating: FIFTH GRADE FAREWELL.

Aparna Gude Merci Beaucoup Patti Klepp, Gracias mucho, and Liza Fues Xie Xie for running the FLES program without a single glitch!

INTERNATIONAL NIGHT’s Allison Ellis, Santi Karamchetty and Agnes de Gonneville. Wow. A GREAT International Night

Jennifer Katz and Ben Katz for doing a fabulous job with the RIBBIT REPORT. This newspaper is always an interesting read.

Katerina Papaioannou and Celine McGowan who ran the ever growing SCIENCE FAIR AND LUNCH WITH A SCIENTIST like absolute pros!

Robin Rosenblum who got over a 100 people walking on this years WALK TO SCHOOL DAY (after eating only healthy snacks…)

Probably can’t say it enough. THANK YOU!

Karen van Loon, School Based Programs


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