Livonia PTSA Council Courier

It's time for our annual transportation/warehouse/printing appreciation event! Please share the following info with your school community AND your building admin so they can include it in their weekly principal update! Above is the flyer. Below are the links for the Amazon wishlist as well as the Givebacks link for monetary donations. In addition, we're inviting units to attend our Council meeting on March 18 to help pack goodie bags - Council members will deliver the bags and breakfast on the morning of March 19. Please let me know if you have any questions!

THANK YOU for all you do,

Mandy Gerstenbrand, LPTSAC president

Amazon wishlist:

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/U3MYC203BM2R?ref_=wl_share

Givebacks store for monetary donations:

https://lptsacouncil.givebacks.com/shop

It's that time of year when we start looking forward to those end of the year celebrations, festivities, events, etc. What better way to gain more members?!?! Maybe have an incentive for those members at these events? Are you looking for future board members for your slate? Make sure they are members of your PTA/PTSA. There's still time!

Please remember to send Michigan PtA their dues for all new members by the 28th of every month to remain in compliance.

Kindly,

Nicole Dant

Treasurer and Membership Chair

It was wonderful to see everyone at our Founders' Day dinner, what a great night! Incidentally, the points below don’t include the ones earned by going to Founders' Day. I will get to that soon!

As always, please make sure you cc me on any emails that could earn you points!!

Please feel free to reach out with any questions and I will do my best to answer them or find the answer. You can email me at pep@livoniaptsacouncil.org

The current standings are below. If you feel like some points haven’t been entered please reach out and we can get any mistakes or omissions corrected.

Keadin Parish

Council Vice President 1 and PEP chair

We are excited to share highlights from our recent Hollywood-themed VIP Dance, which was a fantastic success! Families enjoyed an evening filled with music, dancing, photo opportunities, and plenty of red-carpet moments. It was wonderful to see our students and their special guests dressed as stars and making lasting memories together. Events like this truly showcase the strength and spirit of our school community, and we are so grateful to the parents and volunteers who helped make the night shine so brightly.

We are also proud to recognize our Parent Award Honoree, Amy Oppie, and Staff Award Honoree, Kristen Blazek, at this year’s Founders' Day celebration. Their dedication, time, and commitment to supporting our students and school community truly embody the mission and values of PTA. We are grateful for their service and were thrilled to celebrate their meaningful contributions alongside fellow PTA members and families.

As we head into March, we’re looking forward to celebrating Reading Month and hosting our Spring Book Fair. Encouraging a love of reading is one of our favorite traditions, and we can’t wait to see classrooms and families participate in the many literacy activities planned throughout the month. The book fair will offer students the opportunity to discover new stories while also supporting our school programs — it’s always an exciting time for readers of all ages!

February was a very busy month for Coolidge PTA! We wrapped up our in-school YMAD projects with students. This past year, we were able to offer 331 students at least one opportunity to complete their YMAD project during recess. Students cut and tied 99 fleece blankets that were donated to Sinai Grace Hospital. Almost 200 cards were created as well, most going to local assisted senior living facilities to brighten residents' day for Valentines.

Our DEIB chair updated our monthly bulletin board - last month's theme was Black History Month. On the board, students read some inspiring quotes from leaders throughout history.

Our Scholastic book fair is set up and previews have begun! Shopping will take place the first week of March and we cannot wait to see the excitement on students' faces. Between funds raised a few years ago, our "share the fair" funds, and some scholastic dollars, we are able to provide a "caught reading" ticket to any student who does not have money to shop so that everyone can go home with at least one new book.

Our February Riverside skate night was a wonderful way to escape the frigid weather and have fun with fellow Coolidge families. These skate nights are a nice way for families to get together outside of school while raising some money for the PTA.

Our January dining for donations fundraiser with Peace Tacos and Rolling Stoves was a huge success!!! We cannot wait for March's dining fundraiser with Bad Brad's BBQ. Mention our cause or show our flyer and the PTA will receive 10% back donated to our organization.

The PTA has partnered with the Coolidge literacy team and has transformed our literacy lab into a construction themed reading room. Teachers will be able to bring their classes down during the month of March to spend some time reading in this fabulously decorated room.

Last but not least, we were able to celebrate our distinguished parent (Chelsey Yoder) and staff (Rachel Poe) at Founders' Day. Both of these individuals have supported the PTA in many ways over the last year and we cannot thank them enough for their hard work and dedication to our school and students.

Kindness is in full bloom at Cooper! We delivered hearts to every classroom and each student wrote a note or something special about kindness. We then decorated the halls with a couple of trees showing all the amazing notes from the students! This also made it so we had a school wide Youth Making a Difference engagement! We even had a special note thanking the PTA for everything we do!

We are staying strong with two dine and donates at Quizno's and Red Robin and another Skate night! We did presale tickets during lunch and online to help with the lines and making sure families didn't' have to stand outside in the cold.

Nothing like some friendly competition ~ 5th vs 6th grade Penny Wars! We did this the week of the Super Bowl but we had a twist with it and half of the donations for each grade will go toward 6th grade camp! The students had a blast trying to make the other grade negative with adding silver coins and paper bills. We also had a yearbook cover contest. We had staff vote for the picture drawn by a student. That picture will go on the cover and all of the other entries will be showcased on the back of the yearbook.

I think we can all say we had a blast at Founders' Day! It was amazing to celebrate all the hard work all units have done and seeing everyone come together. We had the pleasure of having a full table including our secretaries, principal, assistant principal and support staff. We are very lucky to have such an amazing group across the entire school! All of the hard work has been showing and was an amazing surprise coming home with three awards!

February has been a sweet month over at Kennedy Elementary.

The month started out with an exciting USA Hockey outing for families. All who joined had fun and special memories were made too.

Our PTA put together the much anticipated second Encouraging Messages Campaign of the school year this month. Parents and students alike came together to write out encouraging messages on hearts to place on every student’s locker. Each staff member benefited and received a heart as well.

February at Kennedy was a month full of PTA sponsored field trips: 2nd grade enjoyed a field trip to High Velocity, 3rd grade had a great time in Lansing visiting the capital, and 4th grade had an in-school field trip with the amazing Rocket Ryan visiting for some fun activities.

Our PTA offered a dine out to Coach's Corner during mid-winter break and it was a hit! Students and teachers alike enjoyed this fundraiser and all the yummy food.

During Kennedy’s February PTA meeting, two members were gifted a gift card thanks to our membership contest that was created to help encourage more people to sign-up to be members of our PTA.

Speaking of contests, many students turned in entries for the annual “Yearbook Cover Decorating Contest” our PTA offers. The winners will be selected in the coming weeks after classroom voting takes place.

Last but not least, our PTA spoiled Kennedy’s staff in February with a fun Boston Cooler Bar for everyone. It was a big hit and much appreciated.

We hope everyone stays warm!

A Night Among The Stars….

On February 6th at Rosedale, our PTA hosted our Girls V.I.P. (Very Important Person) Dance. Our school gym rolled out the red carpet and transformed into a dazzling celebration! Our girls arrived ready to shine, and shine they did! From the moment they stepped onto the carpet, they were treated like true stars, striking their best poses, flashing confident smiles, and celebrating their big night in style.

The dance floor stayed packed thanks to our amazing DJ (Myke Randazzo), who kept the energy high with a fun mix of music that kept the girls on their feet. The excitement didn’t stop there, the girls also went home with fun prizes that made the night even more memorable. The decorations, music, and star-studded atmosphere truly made them feel like celebrities!

The girls and their special guests enjoyed a catered dinner (Mangia), themed cupcakes, face-painters (I Can Paint Faces), a popcorn bar and star studded photo booth (The Memory Box). It was a beautiful evening of connection, confidence, and community spirit. A reminder that every one of our Rosedale girls is a star in their own way.

A heartfelt thank you to our amazing volunteers, staff, and families who made the magic happen. We can’t wait to roll out the red carpet again!

If you are a PTA/PTSA officer or committee chair, please make sure to join our group for important information, discussions, and more! Be sure to answer the questions when you request to join. A lot of great information is shared on this closed group page. It's also a great way to network with other units, share ideas, and ask for help.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/541318689333449/

Michigan PTA Website: https://www.michiganpta.org/

Michigan PTA Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/everychildonevoice

National PTA Website: https://www.pta.org/

National PTA Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ParentTeacherAssociation

National PTA Blog: https://onevoice.pta.org/

The Livonia PTSA Council is a group of 22 local PTA/PTSA Units within the Livonia Public Schools District. The Council is organized under the authority of the Michigan PTA for the purpose of promoting conferences, communications, leadership development and coordination of the efforts of the local units.

Interested in joining Council? There are chair opportunities available! Contact President Mandy Gerstenbrand at president@livoniaptsacouncil.org

Email: newsletter@livoniaptsacouncil.org
Website: www.livoniaptsacouncil.org
Location: 15125 Farmington Road, Livonia, MI, USA
Facebook: facebook.com/LivoniaPTSACouncil
Twitter: @LivoniaPTSAC