Terracycle Friday!

Don't forget your Terracycle items for Friday drop off!  The bin will be outside the front doors between 8:30am and 3:15pm Friday.

I made an interesting discovery.  The clear plastic cups coffee shops use for iced coffee drinks are Solo brand (McDonald's uses the same for their McCafe line of drinks.)  We also Terracycle Solo cups for $.02 each so please keep your eye out for those cups!  Even though they can be recycled in the blue recycle bins, I am more than happy to send them to Terracycle for a worthwhile upcycle (and our $.02).

Happy Terracycling!

Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent

Papa John's Wenesdays Just Got Better

In early November 2010, the Papa John's Pizza people generously brought in pizza to our PTO meeting (see you really should come to the meetings just in case something like this happens!)

The Papa John's guy lets us dig into the pizza while he talks about a fundraiser they do with the schools.  Each school picks one day of the week per month (only Mon-Thurs.) and if you mention WHITNEY when you make your order ON THAT DAY of the month 20% of the sale proceeds go to the school.  The rest of the month, if you put WHITNEY in the promo spot on the online ordering form, the school gets $1.00 no matter the day.

Somebody then brightens up and says, "Wait a minute can we have the last Wednesday of every month?"  Papa John's guy looks a little confused and says yes, that day is still up for grabs.  The person who asks about the last Wednesday is getting giddy.  I'm talking WAY too giddy for this conversation.  "Really?"  She turns to the rest of the PTO and then hits them with her best can-I-have-the-puppy-look.

The rest of the PTO looked a lot confused and for what was probably the 12th time that year and a harbinger of things to come, came to the realization that this PTO mom was/is nuts.

Okay, yeah, so the nutty PTO mom was me.  But I quickly explained that the last Wednesday of the month happens to also be the day before Thanksgiving.  Pizza chains report these as their 5 biggest sales days of the year:

1. Super Bowl Sunday
2. New Year's Eve
3. Halloween
4. The night before Thanksgiving
5. New Year's Day


We couldn't have Sunday (by the rules of the fundraiser) and I couldn't predict what day New Year's or Halloween would fall on but Thanksgiving Eve will always be in the 4th week of November (it's possible we get Halloween, and one of the New Year's every once in a while and true that a 5 week November could screw us up but we should do well over time.)


In my giddiness I think I blurted out something like, "I never cook the day before Thanksgiving!  Oh please can we have it??"  The rest of the PTO agreed it might be a good fundraising night and thus we have the last Wednesday of the month.


But do you know how it just got better?  I have yet to try out this coupon but I just found one online for Papa John's.  The site it came from says it only works ONE day of the week.  Guess when: WEDNESDAY!!  Give it a try and let me know.  It's supposed to take 25% off your regular priced items on your online order on Wednesdays.

COUPON CODE:WW25

Here are some pizza fun facts: http://pizza.com/fun-facts

*Note: Grady and I have even been to the single highest grossing independent pizzeria in the nation: the http://www.moosestooth.net/index2.htm in Anchorage, Alaska.  That's a long ways to go just for a blog but I like to keep things authentic.

The Perilous Pickup Parade

Kids, it's 3:15, do you know where your parents are?

The perilous pickup parade waiting for you, of course!  (Silly Whitney Blogger!)  From the "silly" Whitney Blogger's perspective I have seen a lot of curious things that make for dangerous or at least annoying situations.  There are more cars than there is space.  (I have a theory there are more cars than children at the school and some people in the neighborhood come out just to yank our chain, but that's a different story.)  The cars moving down Owyhee are mostly behaving well but sometimes you will get one that ignores the 20 mph speed limit causing sudden braking and hand gesturing when a child enters the crosswalk.

Inside the lot itself, there is a whole swirl of accidents-waiting-to-happen there.  The most amazing thing I ever witnessed was a driver talking on a phone while an adult ushered a child into the car.  The driver began pulling away before the child had even gotten into the car!  They stopped the car but the child was no sooner in the car before the driver began pulling away again with that back door wide open.

Parents are equally befuddled as they yell for you, standing 15 feet away but their cries go unnoticed.  You look this way and that but all you see are your friends.  Did mom and dad get a new car that afternoon?  Are cars becoming like the black luggage at the airport where you have to put obnoxious duct tape on them to instantly recognize yours.  Hey!  Not a bad idea just in case we all start driving the same Ford Galaxy!

It's nuts out there kiddies.  So, what do we do?  Suffer?  It will get better in college when you are able to drive home but don't because you want to save your money for expensive, um, job interview trips in March.

Don't worry, I have such a great solution your parents will love it, the school will love it and their doctor is bound to send me flowers!

Did you know you can park absolutely free, without fear of towing at the Whitney United Methodist Church parking lot during school drop off and pick up?  Simply park and walk over to pick up your kids and/or talk to their teachers.  Because of the positioning of the lot you have a quicker exit off Owyhee as well!  The quick walk may just be what the doctor ordered for your stress and the time it takes to walk over to the school may be outweighed by the line of cars you would have had to negotiate.

Still not convinced?  Just try parking in the church parking lot and walking over to the school.

• Your doctor and your health likes it
• The school likes it
• The environment likes it
• You are being a good example to your kids
• You will meet new people; yes I promise the Whitney Blogger is in front of the school everyday and is one of the stranger of the people you will meet
• YOU will like it too.

1. If you do have to drive into the school lot, pull as far forward into the lot as you can (regardless of whether you're dropping off or picking up.)
2. If you are waiting to pick up a student, find a spot in the line as far forward as possible and SHUT your engine OFF.  Idling your engine creates poisonous gases called carbon monoxide and dioxide.  While today's cars produce 98% fewer hydrocarbons than their older brothers and sisters 30 years ago, there are more cars on the road today.  Remember when most households only had 1 car?  Sitting in an idling car can expose you to low level carbon monoxide poisoning or in some recent cases can cause catastrophic levels leading to tragic results.  Shut your engine off, get out of the car and enjoy the company of your fellow parents and grandparents.

Nikki Rutledge

-Whitney Parent

Dual Language-Get Your Child's Career Path Started Now!

I knew Whitney was special but I was not aware just HOW special until the PTO meeting this last Monday.  As we introduced ourselves there were a lot of new faces but one of the PTO officers I had gotten to know over the course of the previous year and liked quite a bit, it turns out I didn't know as well as I thought.

She mentioned her student is participating in the dual language program.  That much did not surprise me, many of the PTO parents have kids in the dual language program.  What surprised me is that this particular parent had to get special permission for her student to attend Whitney because they live in Meridian.  Another parent in the room promptly spoke up that they commute from Meridian as well to participate in the dual language program. 

That's right, Whitney's dual language program is in such high demand that there are people from other school districts going through special processes and jumping through red tape JUST TO ATTEND WHITNEY!

As I write this, my youngest sibling is a world away in Morocco immersing herself in the culture and language with the hope of gaining an edge on her contemporaries when she graduates.  The consequence of being a generation younger than most of your siblings is that they tend to baby you.  Well, she certainly outsmarted us this time.  When my sister graduates she will have a pick of jobs because of her intense focus on languages.

Whitney is giving our students an edge down the road.  If they participate in the dual language program, Whitney students will be opening doors at the age of 6 that will otherwise not be open to their contemporaries at the age of 18. 

Hats off to the administration at Whitney for implementing this program and our thanks to the dual language teachers for all of their hard work.  Your work is garnering attention and you deserve to pat yourself on the back.

Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent

Terracycle List

Have you noticed the strange Terracycle box in front of the school and wondered what you can put in there?

Here is what we are collecting:

·         Drink Pouch Brigade®: Capri Sun, Minute Maid, Kool Aid all seem to be okay

Scott Brand Brigade®

Huggies Brand Brigade®

Scotch Tape Brigade®

Cereal Bag Brigade®

Elmer's Glue Crew Brigade®

NEOSPORIN Tube Brigade®

Lunch Kit Brigade®

Colgate Oral Care Brigade®: Any brand toothbrush or toothpaste seems to be acceptable; these items are made into non-brand specific items like engineered decking material so they don't seem to care about the brand.

Candy Wrapper Brigade®: ANY SIZE!  Think about that Halloween stash when it's reduced to rubble.

Cookie Packaging Brigade®

Tortilla and Tostada Bag Brigade®

Inkjet Brigade®

Cheese Packaging Brigade®

Personal Care and Beauty Brigade®

Revolution Foods Brigade®

Sprout Baby Food Pouch Brigade®

Peanut Butter Brigade®

Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade®

Bear Naked Brigade®

CORE Wrapper Brigade®

Brigada de Empaques de Tortillas y Tostadas® / Tortillas and Tostadas Bags Brigade®

Bottle and Can Brigade: Brought to you by the Dream Machine Recycle Rally

Method® Refill Brigade®

Solo® Cup Brigade®

Keyboard and Mouse Brigade®

Laptop Brigade®

Digital Camera Brigade®

Cell Phone Brigade®

Dropps Laundry Packages

Pens and Sharpies

Corks Brigade

Chip Bag Brigade

Home Storage Brigade: They said they would stop accepting Ziploc bags at the end of the summer but it seems they still have the brigade active and because we have collected $98 from sending in Ziploc bags, keep sending them in!  They accept any brand, any size.

Kashi Package Brigade®: they accept cereal bag liners so send in any brand cereal bag liner and we will send these here!

I know this will sound very insignificant but Terracycle and their partners give us $.02 for each item.  That means $.02 for every Ziploc bag, every cheese wrapper, every pen and even every plastic cup.  Computer accessories, laptops, digital cameras and cell phones are more.  All of these items, things that cannot be placed in the big blue recycle bin, add up to actual money the school can use anything the PTO decides it needs.  Terracycle gives us no restrictions or guidelines on how the money must be spent.  Last year we brought in nearly $200 from the garbage that not only would have been thrown out, it would have gone to a landfill and not one bit to a recycling center!

All you have to do is remember to bring those items to the school and put them in the Terracycle bin in front of the school's front doors anytime between 8:40 and 3:15 Fridays.

Nikki Rutledge

-Whitney Parent and "School Garbage Mogul"

Welcome Back Whitney!

Greetings and Welcome Back Whitney!

Did you have a good summer?  These first few weeks it has been great to connect with old friends and meet new ones.

New and RETURNING Parents (Grandparents and Guardians too!), you have a wonderful and significant role in your student's development.  There are many ways you can participate in your student's education and one of the more fun ways is through the Parent Teacher Organization.  Did that say fun?  Yes!  Whitney Elementary School's PTO ROCKS!  You determine your level of involvement and that doesn't mean coming to every meeting or feeling obligated to sign up for every activity or even one.  Join us September 12 @3:45 PM in the Whitney Library for our first PTO meeting of the year.  Choose how you want to contribute whether that be by coming to a PTO meeting every once in a while, signing up for Trunk or Treat or committing to saving your old toothbrushes for the TerraCycle program!

One of the PTO's finer functions is to raise money for the school.  I, myself, am the sort of person that defies traditional PTO molds and created my own PTO niche.  I found that I LOVED figuring out new ways to raise money for the school.  This Blog has several links like the Amazon.com and Coupons links that are both monetized.  What that means is that if you click on those and make a purchase through Amazon or PRINT coupons by clicking on the coupons link, small amounts of money are given to the school in what is called a referral fee.  There are people out there who make a living doing this, why shouldn't the school raise funds doing the same thing?  I also discovered that it's not just Capri Sun packages that we turn in to raise money but also toothbrushes, candy wrappers, wine bottle corks and even used make up containers!  I dedicated a small space in my garage to this collection effort and now I send in two or three packages per month.  During the 2010-2011 school year we raised $174 from collecting garbage and shipping it for free to TerraCycle.net.

Our very talented and very pleasant fundraising coordinator, Kara Souza, is also the Box Tops for Education coordinator.  We raised the potential of what we can do last year by bringing in a whopping $1621, an increase of almost $1200 over what we had brought in prior to the 2010-2011 school year.

What do we do with the money?  Last year the PTO helped out the school by buying toilet paper, copy paper and paying for a test proctor.  We also added coat hooks to the hallway adding a new level of safety to the hall (piles of backpacks might prevent kids from escaping the building efficiently in the event of a fire) and it is a good hygiene practice.

What is your homework?  Think about how you would like the PTO to spend money.  Would you want a fund set aside to bring in fun science, technology, engineering and math tools?  Would you like to see a scholarship for Whitney Alumna to help them with their application fees into colleges?  What do YOU want to see?  Your homework is to think about that and then come to the PTO meeting and share those ideas with us!

Your other homework is to go to www.terracycle.net and see if any of the items on the list are things you routinely throw away.  If so, those are things YOU can bring to the school on Fridays and place in the TerraCycle box at the front doors.  For example, toothbrushes and toothpaste containers, any kind will bring us $.02 each.  It doesn't sound like much but it does add up.

Oh, and I almost forgot.  When you go to Albertson's or Fred Meyer, watch your receipt for an extra piece of paper that includes BOX TOPS!!  I have put the Albertson's on Vista on the alert and they will are willing to hold Box Top Catalina that pops out of the register that gets left in their recycle bin for Whitney.  If you mention you are with Whitney and a bundle of Box Tops is thrust upon you, fear not.  You may send those on to the office who will direct those to either Kara or to me and we will enter those codes for you if you do not wish to do that work.

Welcome back to school everybody!  It is going to be a great year.

Nikki Rutledge

-Whitney Parent