GATE Parent Fundraising Committee

The GATE program has grown tremendously in the last 5 years. There are many more options and many more participating students. Unfortunately, the funding has stayed the same. We are looking to raise money to continue to improve the program through additional classroom materials.

To join the GATE Fundraising Committee, please email Sabine Beach at gate_fundraising@gtparentconnection.org.

PARENT RESOURCES QUICK LIST

For questions pertaining specifically to your child(ren), contact the GATE office at 775-850-8010 or email Lisa Riggs at lriggs@washoeschools.net.

If you want to attend/participate in a parent group, there are two available:

• GTAC (Gifted and Talented Advisory Council)- GTAC serves as an advisory body to the Washoe County School District. For more information, visit the GTAC page.
• GT Parent Connection (GTPC)- GTPC provides information, support, and educational opportunities for parents and educators of gifted and talented students in Washoe County, Nevada. Join GTPC.

GATE FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE COMMUNICATIONS

» 2011-11-29 Barnes & Noble Bookfair on December 2nd

Come shop for your holiday gifts and help raise money for the GATE program
and its wonderful students!
Print flyer with voucher and present it to cashier prior to making your purchase.

Barnes & Noble Bookfair
Friday, December 2, 2011
9:00am - 10:00pm
Barnes & Noble- 5555 S. Virginia Street, Reno

Scheduled Events on December 2nd at Barnes & Noble:
Teachers Appreciation Tea at 4:00pm-5:30pm
Scavenger Hunts (all ages welcome) at 4:00pm-8:00pm

If you cannot attend the bookfair at Barnes & Noble on December 2nd, please visit bn.com/bookfairs and shop online on December 2nd through December 7th.
Please enter the Bookfair ID #10604486 during checkout.

Barnes & Noble Bookfair Online
December 2, 2011 - December 7, 2011
bn.com/bookfairs
Bookfair ID: #10604486

Please pass the vouchers out to family, friends, neighbors or whoever you think might like to shop at Barnes & Noble on December 2nd or online.

» 2010-02-12 Chili's Fundraising Night, Feb 22nd (3pm - 10pm)

Let's Get Together at Chili's McCarran!

With each flyer presented on Gifted and Talented Night, Chili's will donate 10% of the sales you bring in to your organization. Let us do the cooking and support the GATE PROGRAM at the same time!

Offer also good on take out orders.

Chili's McCarran
10340 N McCarran Blvd, Reno
(775) 787-3388
GATE PROGRAM CHILI'S NIGHT FLYER

Thanks for your interest in our kids, the GATE program & the committee! Hope you see you at the events!

Andrea Hughs-Baird
gate_fundraising@gtparentconnection.org
S.W.A.S. 3rd grade parent
GT Parent Connection Treasurer
GTAC Vice Chairman

» 2010-01-18 2nd Fundraising Committee Meeting on Jan 25th at 6:30pm

Happy New Year Everyone!

The GATE fundraising effort is still moving forward and I think we're making some real progress.

First, I would like to invite you to our second fundraising committee meeting on Jan 25 at 6:30 pm. This meeting will be a combination of b usiness and social. A social gathering was requested at our meeting in October and GT Parent Connection has very generously agreed to host it. GTPC has planned the event especially for us and I would really like us to show our appreciation by attending if possible. The meeting will start at 6:30 with hosted appetizers and mingling (please feel free to bring something if you would like, but it is not required). There will be a 3 psychologist panel and discussion from 7:00 - 7:45 and we can follow with a quick meeting starting around 7:45 or 8. The event is going to be at Jessie Beck school and please feel free to bring your kids if needed (we can arrange child supervision in the future it this is a need for the group). Flyers & emails should be coming out soon.

Second, the Chili's Night has been moved to Feb 22. It would be great to see you all there! Flyers & emails should be coming out on this soon too.

Most of the leg work has been finished on offering the different scrip programs to the GATE parents, so watch for flyers & emails about this too.

We're still cooking on a few things that I need to follow up on so there will be another update soon:

• The Partner in Education for the GATE Program
• The GATE directory
• The GATE yearbook
• The capital campaign

Thanks for your interest in our kids, the GATE program & the committee! Hope you see you at the events!

Andrea Hughs-Baird
gate_fundraising@gtparentconnection.org
S.W.A.S. 3rd grade parent
GT Parent Connection Treasurer
GTAC Vice Chairman

» 2009-12-13 Book Fair

Hi Everyone.

First let me wish you all Happy Holidays & a nice winter break!

Our first fundraiser is under our belt & I can't believe we earned $819.62 for the GATE Program!! Many, many thanks to Media Labbauf for suggesting & implementing the idea! A big thank you to Lu Ann Pillar, Tracy Sherwood, Madeleine Palmer & Mary Ann Hansen for helping at the table during the event. There were also 48+ books purchased for the classrooms from the teacher wish lists (the tracking system had some bugs so we're not sure of the exact number). The wish lists will be posted on the GTPC web site if you know anyone who would still like to purchase books for the classes. Also, thanks to any of you who came to the event & bought books!

To update you on a few other items ...

Lauren Klein is actively pursuing a Partner in Education for the GATE Program and also received a $100 donation for the program last Friday.

Lu Ann Pillar is moving forward on the directory. It will hopefully be available before school is out so the kids can contact their friends over the summer. Tracy Sherwood has offered to help as needed.

The Chili's night is planned for Jan 11 -- please save the date. Flyers will be coming out once school is back in session. If anyone would like to be in charge of this, please let me know -- I don't think it will require much work.

I will be putting a flyer out in Jan soliciting direct monetary donations to the GATE Program.

GTPC is planning a Jan event for parents to meet & find some kindred spirits going though the same challenges of raising GT kids. It will be a pot luck & there will be a panel of psychologists to present some info and address general questions.

Well, that's the short & sweet version of what's happening. Again, Happy Holidays!

Andrea Hughs-Baird
gate_fundraising@gtparentconnection.org
S.W.A.S. 3rd grade parent
GT Parent Connection Treasurer
GTAC Vice Chairman

» 2009-11-15 Update to keep everyone in the loop:

Hi All:

Just an update to keep everyone in the loop:

• Lauren Klein has done some preliminary work to find GATE a Partner in Education. We are waiting to talk to Lisa Riggs to get the go ahead to move forward.
• I looked into groupery.com and volunteerspot.com and discussed them with Madeleine Palmer, the GTPC web expert. At this point I'm not ready to start up either of these, but I did have Madeleine add a big fundraising committee "button" to the WCSD GATE tab on www.gtparentconnection.org. It gives some basic info on our group & allows anyone to access the communications I have sent out so far.
• Media Labbauf has arranged for a GATE book fair on Dec 11. We are working on the details now _ more to come! We will need volunteers that day/night, so please save the date & let Media know if you would like to volunteer for a shift.
• The Chili's night was arranged for Dec 7, but I think it should be changed to January. If anyone is willing to work on this, please let me know.
• I need to meet with Lisa Riggs before I can proceed with the "donation flyer" and we have not been able to coordinate that yet. As part of the district reorganization, Lisa has accepted the opportunity to add the job of District Library Services Coordinator to her duties for the remainder of the year. This may make it harder for Lisa to give us her time, but it shows that she is valued by district management is a nice complement for all her hard work.
• Tracy Sherwood and LuAnn Pillar have offered to work on/head up creating a directory. Can the two of you please brainstorm some ideas on the logistics of gathering the info, cost, price?, etc? Maybe later this week we can have some 3-way email communications to make some decisions and move forward on this.
• Thank you to Keith Rugg for your yearbook proposal. I need to talk to Lisa about this, but what does everyone think about having a page of portraits & a page of candids per classroom that the kids would layout themselves using the web sites? If there are in fact 30 classrooms that would make it a 60+ page book. If the cost is $10-$15 each, we could sell them for $20-$25??
• I have given Madeleine Palmer the audio of the Dr. Webb program and Judith Bynum is confirming that we have his permission to put it on the GTPC web site.
• Mary Story is working on the scrip arrangements and will put together a flyer soon.

The GTPC board agreed to help with a pot luck in January so we can all get together socially. The Program Director is also looking into putting together a psychologist panel for that night - this has been one of our best attended events in the past. If anyone is willing to make a sign or two, we can have a committee sign-up/info table at the event.

Please feel free to give me any kind of feedback or other ideas/suggestions. Also please encourage any GT parents you know to get involved and to visit www.gtparentconnection.org to get up to date on our plans so far.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with the arrangements to date. Thanks to all of you for your willingness to get involved and help!

Andrea Hughs-Baird
gate_fundraising@gtparentconnection.org
S.W.A.S. 3rd grade parent
GT Parent Connection Treasurer
GTAC Vice Chairman

» 2009-11-01 Recap of 10/22/09 Meeting

Dear GATE Fundraising Committee:

Thanks for a great meeting today. It was fun to meet so many talented, enthusiastic people. Below is a list of some of the ideas that were talked about. I have bolded the names of people I'm hoping will take a lead role in implementing the idea. Please let me know if you are not able to do it.

• Find a Partner in Education - Lisa Riggs? I think it has to be someone from the district??
• Use the web program "Groupery" - solicit business sponsors, Lauren Klein is the expert on this... I need to get you & Madeleine Palmer together on this.
• Restaurant/Book Store fundraisers e.g. chili's (already booked by GATE staff), Barnes & Noble (Media Labbauf offered to set this up?), others??
• Davidson makes a big point of asking all parents to donate even if it is just $5. It helps with grant writing to be able to say that there is 100% participation in parent donations. - I will try to include this on the "donation flyer"
• Distribute a flyer with an "angel tree" of teacher needs/wants for the classroom - may be part of the "donation flyer", maybe classroom specific??
• Make (& sell??) a directory of students in the program - anyone want to head this up?
• Have people/teachers take pictures of field trips/events/use of donated materials to post as thank you for donations - I'll talk to Lisa about how to get this implemented. Keith Rugg, would you put together something that would be workable for a yearbook for the program so we can see what we can offer & for how much?
• Put "webinars" on web site - I'll ask Madeleine Palmer (the GTPC web guiro about this.)
• Put audio of Jim Webb program on web site - I'll talk to Madeleine Palmer & Judith Bynum.
• Distribute flyer to have parents sign up for all forms of scrip - I talked to the "box top" mom, Mary Story, from my kids' zoned school & she will put together a flyer for GATE.

We agreed our first fundraiser will be distributing a flyer asking for donations. I will try to reformat the items requested by the GATE department something more clear for the flyer. I will modify the flyer and send it to the committee for comments. Hopefully we can get it distributed in November.

Please let me know if you have a talent that you think will be particularly useful to the committee. Also, please let me know if you would like to take a lead role in implementing one or more of the above ideas.

I encourage you to visit the GTPC web site (www.gtparentconnection.org), join GTPC, & attend GTAC meetings (meetings are generally the first Monday of the month at 7:00 at the WCSD Administration Office at 425 East Ninth Street, Reno). I am going to ask GTPC at the board meeting on 11/6 if they are willing to put on a pot luck in the next couple of months to help the committee get together again socially & to introduce all of you to that support group.

Please feel free to give me any kind of feedback on this or other ideas/suggestions. Also please encourage any GT parents you know to get involved.

Andrea Hughs-Baird
gate_fundraising@gtparentconnection.org
S.W.A.S. 3rd grade parent
GT Parent Connection Treasurer
GTAC Vice Chairman

» 2009-10-14 GATE Fundraising Committee Introduction

October 2009

Dear GT Parents,

I am a fellow GT Parent with a 3rd grader at Whitehead Elementary. I have been on a steep learning curve since my daughter was identified as I am sure many of you have been. I have attended a lot of events put on by GT Parent Connection and the GT Advisory Council in an effort to educate myself about the GATE program and how to best help the students.

One of the things I now know is that many schools depend heavily on their PTA/PTOs to help fund more than just the basic educational equipment, materials, and programs. The GATE Department has no such dedicated organization to look to for help. Because of this, I have offered to help with GATE fundraising efforts. I would like to form a parent fundraising committee to help the GATE Department brainstorm and implement some fundraising ideas.

GATE will keep getting better with our help
The GATE program has grown tremendously in the last 5 years. There are many more options and many more participating students. Unfortunately, the funding has stayed the same. We are looking to raise money to continue to improve the program through additional classroom materials.

One parent from each GATE location will make a difference
It would be great if we could get volunteers from each SWAS class, each elementary pull-out location, each ALM location, and even some high school parents, so all options are represented. We anticipate a meeting or two this fall to brainstorm, and then a few more throughout the school year. The meetings will be friendly and give all participants a better understanding of the GT program and its funding.

Support from the local GT groups is already in place
We will have support behind our ideas from the many members of GT Parent Connection and the District's GT Advisory Council. Once we come up with a plan or program, we can ask for their support and they will respond!

Please join me on October 22, at 10:30 am at Borders
Please join me for a cup of coffee in the cafe to get our ideas started. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at andrea.hughsbaird@gmail.com.

Warmly,

Andrea Hughs-Baird
gate_fundraising@gtparentconnection.org
S.W.A.S. 3rd grade parent
GT Parent Connection Treasurer
GTAC Vice Chairman