Haiti Read-a-Thon donation total!

A huge thank you to all who pledged and participated in the Lower School Read-a-Thon.

Cash and checks collected: $9,547

Online donations: $10,826

Matching funds: $7,000

Total: A whopping $27,373!!!

Once again, the Catlin Gabel community has come together to help those in need- your generosity and kindness are surely appreciated by Mercy Corps and those beyond! We have never had a more successful student led fundraiser.

Garden Design Contest

The Garden Club is going to expand the existing garden behind the middle school, and we would like your design help. This is a contest soliciting your garden design ideas by February 22.
 
We want to add twelve more beds onto the existing five beds so that students, teachers, and parents can grow more vegetables for the Barn lunches. Hen in the Barn has requested the following: sunflower and lilies, basil, carrots, lettuce, cucumber, and tomatoes. Of course, beets, peas, and beans are welcome too! We also envision fruit trees or bushes, benches, garden art, and beautiful paths of some sort, lined with cedar chips.
 
Click here to go to the “Blank Garden Image” PDF to download and print the file:

Once you print the file, please follow the directions on the sheet by drawing in twelve beds, fruit trees or bushes, benches, and garden art.
 
Once finished with your drawing, please return it to Catlin Gabel School, addressed to Carter Latendresse, so that he receives it by February 22.
 
You will be notified if your design is chosen so that the Garden Club might honor you with a $50 gift certificate to The Farm Café.
 

Donations needed for outdoor clothing sale!!

Does the thought of having to  buy one more pair of  BRAND NEW RAIN PANTS AT FULL PRICE because your child is going on an outdoor trip and has outgrown the pair you bought  last year drive you over the edge? We feel the same and that is why we are organizing a sale of slightly used outdoor clothing and gear! WE NEED YOUR DONATIONS NOW!! Please bring any items you can donate to the lower school office this week. Date and location of sale to be announced shortly. Prices at the sale will be moderate and all proceeds will go to Financial Aid for Experiential Days and Class Trips.

Thanks for your support, Catherine Kinnucan & Megan Galaher

Take Kindle for a spin

Overnight checkout available through IT department.

The Information Technology department now has an Amazon Kindle available to families for overnight checkout to evaluate whether or not they might wish to purchase one. The IT office is located in the upper level of the Vollum Humanities Building. Please email IT@catlin.edu if you wish to reserve the Kindle.

At this time, we do not anticipate formal school adoption of the Kindle or other electronic book reader, but we would like to support families that are interested in them.
 

Learn more about Kindle features at http://www.catlin.edu/news/take-kindle-for-a-spin-courtesy-of-it-department

First Grade Coin Lunch Bunch

Thurs. Feb. 25 first graders interested in learning about coins can bring their lunch to the library for “Coin Lunch Bunch.” They are welcome to trade for uncirculated presidential dollar coins and state quarters. We’ll be looking at other coins as well.

Do you turn left into Catlin Gabel from Barnes Road? If so, read on!

It has been reported that a police officer has ticketed one of our parents for pulling into the left turn lane too early. Since many of us deal with this issue on a daily basis, we wanted to let you know that it could be a $271 mistake....

Gambol Auction News

Thank you Donors
Donations are closed. Thanks to the generosity of our donors we have fantastic auction items to offer. Look forward to more party and activity sign-ups than ever before, a full-bodied wine auction, and a live auction that will knock your socks off! Our catalog is going to print next week and we will preview the items on the website soon.

Registration
Tickets are selling fast and tables are filling up. Don’t miss out on the biggest party of the year. Buy your ticket here!

Organize a Table
If there is a specific group you would like to sit with at the Gambol, the auction office needs to know. Please fill out the Table Captain form and return to the auction office as soon as possible. Don’t have a group to sit with? No worries, we will make sure you have a great seat.

Volunteer Sign-up Open
Organizing a successful auction takes thoughtful preparation and dedication. Proceeds from the Gambol auction directly support our teachers and students. We rely on the generous volunteer support of our community to pull off this big party.

Please take a moment to review the volunteer opportunities that are available to help before, during, and after the Gambol event. Volunteer sign-up available here.
More information? Visit the website  or contact the auction office at gambol@catlin.edu.

Poster Child

Most of you know that Maggie, our beloved fifth grade teacher, has fought — and won! -- a battle with breast cancer this year. She wrote this article as a way of sharing a bit about her journey. It highlights our theme of resiliency; it also connects with the topic of our last parent coffee, “How to talk about the tough stuff with your child.” Enjoy!

It’s a joke among my colleagues at the LS that I am literally the poster child for resiliency. On the LS retreat, a picture of me surfing, taken the weekend after my cancer diagnosis, was taped to the tv so I could be “present” in spirit, even though I couldn’t be there in body. I was initially pretty embarrassed by this. For me, the ocean was the natural place to go and surfing was the one reliable place for me to clear my head. You can’t stay on the board if you think about anything else.

Cancer keeps you pretty busy for a while. Lab tests, doctor’s appointments, surgeries, medicine, and research about all of them, can fill your mind and your days for a good long while. When there’s a lull in the action, as there is for me right now, there’s a lot of time to think, a good thing and a sometimes uncomfortable thing.

I’ve thought about how my parents, whom I adore, didn’t share bad news with me or my siblings when we were little. Later, I heard about the biopsies, the wait for results and other worries, like how they would pay for college for six kids. I thought their lives were static: same friends, same job, same house. There was a lot of safety and security in that sameness. Now that I’m older, I appreciate their sacrifices and how they shielded us, yet we now have an agreement to share good and bad news.

When I was diagnosed, my husband and I decided to share information with the kids immediately. We told them, in an honest, but pretty bare-bones way, what we’d heard and what we’d need to do next. Then we listened to their questions, really listened. The boys didn’t have many and wanted to be done with the conversation for a while. The girls wanted to know some basics: would I lose my hair and what would life be like at home if I was at the hospital. We tried not to over-answer and to be available for follow-up questions when they arose around the edges – from the back seat, right before bed, during homework, etc. One of the kids didn’t want to ask anything, so I thought out loud in front of him, in the hopes that he’d know what would happen and that he’d be well cared for. Of course, the hardest part was that I couldn’t promise them that I’d be okay, even though that’s what we all wanted me to say.

During this process, Jonathan, our LS counselor, was so helpful to me in thinking about how to navigate this terrifying process as a parent. He helped me to see that we were doing some things right which felt so good when everything else felt so wrong. He also pointed out that each of our kids was going to, of course, handle this adversity in his or her own way. Our family can be silly and we found that humor helped a lot. Barry’s impersonations of a dinosaur at dinner are still a favorite. My brothers, as politically incorrect as ever, made me laugh over the phone.

Keeping the kids’ schedule as close to “normal” and honoring their gifts felt more important than ever. Jacob found rock climbing, Liam a new soccer team, Abbie a new volleyball team and Emmy a passion for skiing fast. Their growing competencies gave them an outlet and a feedback loop that helped them bounce back and feel strong.

I know that trusting that other adults could love the kids and take care of them at school, at home and on the soccer field helped the kids feel more secure. To do so, I needed to share information I didn’t always want to share. After Liam’s new soccer coach told him he wouldn’t play in games if he didn’t make every practice, I needed to share that this would be challenging. I had only met him once and then felt I needed to tell him about my breast cancer. I hated feeling that “out there” and vulnerable. What happened? It turned out the coach’s mom had just finished her last round of chemo and he wanted to pay it forward by driving Liam to every practice.

I believe that letting others take care of us helped my kids feel more rooted and safe. We’ve enjoyed eating so many amazing dinners from Catlin families, and our kids feel embraced with each meal. We eat in the dining room, surrounded by prayer flags created by Catlin faculty/staff, friends and family, and I know we all feel that even though things are rough, that we’ll all somehow be okay.

So, am I the poster child for resiliency? I still don’t think so, but with our community by our side, I feel that we’re making our way. I remember our first dinner this fall after my surgery when the kids weren’t so careful with me, weren’t overly polite, and I was thankful we were back to our version of normal. Am I mushier with them than ever before? Definitely. Am I always positive and do I feel strong? Definitely not, but I am very hopeful for our family’s future. My kids are going to be okay.

French students in 4th and 5th grade

We have been celebrating Mardi Gras and talked about the tradition in France and around the world.
We made Crepes and a lot of students wanted the recipe. You can find the recipe on the February page of my blog at Francine-bonappetit.blogspot.com Have fun!
 

Model Railroad Club Open House

What has 34 wheels, generates more than 5,000 horse power, weighs 1.2 million pounds, can travel 80 miles per hour, and runs on water?

Answer: The largest steam locomotive ever built, the Alco 4-8-8-4 Big Boy.

Come see this and more than 30 other locomotives running in HO scale at the Catlin Gabel Model Railroad Club’s sixth anniversary open house. See the town lit up as well as the six- stall roundhouse. If you want to know how cool the train setup is, just ask the Beginning School Honeybees who recently visited the club.

Thursday, March 4, 3 – 6 p.m.
Friday, March 5, 3 – 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 6, 1 – 5 p.m.

Basement of the Catlin Gabel caretaker’s house at 8685 SW Barnes Rd.
Top of the hill behind the facilities building
Look for the yellow sign on the door leading to the basement.

It’s FREE, FUN and TOTALLY COOL!

After-School Care News

Lower School After-School Activities next week include: 

Monday Chess Club for experienced Chess players meets in the Barn after School.

Tuesday after-school Homework Club for 5th graders whose parents have made advance arrangements with Sue Sacks, LS Learning Specialist.  Students report to the Barn for snack before 3:30 pm. 

NOTE: This week is a “no homework week” for students in grade 4 so parents should arrange to pick the up after school or make arrangements for them to attend ASC.

Individual Strings Lessons as scheduled Wednesday afternoons.

Thursday Chess for Learners - Meet in the Barn after school.

MATHAMAZING for students in Grades 4 and 5 will meet on Thursday afternoon.  Students should come to ASC first unless other arrangements have been made.  Pick-up is in the LS Science Room at 5:00 pm.  

Fusion Yoga meets in the LS Library at 3:15 on Fridays. There are still student (Grades 1-5) spots available; contact Ginny Malm by email or phone if you are interested.

Parent Conferences for Beginning and Lower Schools will occur on Thursday, March 4 and Friday, March 5.  After-School Care will sponsor all-day programs and drop-in care (during the time of a family’s conference only) on those days. 

Also After School: Girl Scouts  -  The Grade 2 Girl Scouts will meet after school in their classroom this Wednesday.  Girl Scout groups in Grades 4 and 5 will not meet this week.