The Congressional Award is Congress’s only charity. Established to law in 1979, the Congressional Award was created to honor, encourage, and inspire America’s youth. In the ensuing years, Congress has recognized thousands of outstanding young Americans who have earned and deserve our admiration and recognition. Through the Congressional Award, Congress urges young people to challenge themselves. Any interested, motivated student, aged 14 through 24 years old, may participate in the Congressional Award by setting and achieving individually challenging goals in four program areas: Voluntary Public Service, Personal Development, Physical Fitness and Expedition/Exploration.

Matthew has earned the Congressional Award Gold Medal. To earn the Gold Medal, each participant must complete at least 400 hours of Voluntary Public Service, which means sharing their time and talent for the betterment of the community, 200 hours of Personal Development, which can include exploring or improving upon a talent, skill, hobby, or interest, and 200 hours of Physical Fitness, spent in any way that improves their health and quality of life. Additionally, they must spend at least five days and four nights exploring a new environment or culture. Matthew has been consistently working to achieve this award for over 2 years, the minimum time frame to earn the Gold Medal. Matthew

Matthew did not “win” the award – he EARNED it! Matthew was recently formally recognized during the 2023 Gold Medal Summit in Washington, D.C. If you would like to learn more about the Congressional Award, including what Matthew did to earn it and how you too can work towards this award, please contact us at information@congressionalaward.org.

Mrs. Chung will be holding an after-school art enrichment class on Wednesday, September 27th from 3:00 - 4:30. If you are interested, please fill out the form ASAP as there are limited spots for up to 25 students.

Did you attend the Club Interest meeting and you’re ready to start or continue your club? If so, please fill out the application form and club constitution, print it out and turn it in by Friday September 8. We can’t wait to see the great impact all the new and returning clubs will have on LMA!

On Wednesday we had our first Class Color Spirit Day of the year! We hope to see even more participation in the future! Congratulations to our 6th grade and 11th grade students who had the most participation and won paletas!

Our TIDE Shack is officially open and will be open every day at lunch! This year we are also accepting card payments and tap to pay with a minimum purchase of ten dollars! FYI: The TIDE Shack will be CLOSED ON September 6th.

TIDEPool Tutoring has been Revamped! Our high school tutors will be there to provide any help that our middle school students need. Remember to visit the TIDEPool on Tuesdays in the middle school commons during point break!

In observance of Labor Day there is no school on September 4th! Since we have Monday off, Wednesday, September 6th, will be a modified late-start schedule (Periods 1,3,5, & 7/MS PB). Enjoy your Monday off!

Good Afternoon parents and students!

We hope you all have been having a great school year so far. The month of September is ‘Pediatric Awareness Month’, and as a club that raises awareness and funds for children battling pediatric cancer, we started an initiative called ‘Project Gold Ribbon’ last September. ‘Project Gold Ribbon’ was a huge success last year - we raised $20K in funds and made it onto KTLA Morning News. We donated half the money to CHOC Pediatric Cancer Research Center and the other half directly to the children who were going through treatment, in order to buy them gifts and put smiles on their faces while they were going through that difficult time. We want to thank you all again for helping us raise all that money last year. The LMA community’s efforts helped so many children, and this year, we are so happy to announce that we will be launching ‘Project Gold Ribbon - Phase 2’ throughout the month of September. This year, we will be partnering with the CHOC Hospital Foundation, and will be donating all the funds raised to CHOC’s Pediatric Oncology Cancer Institute. We want this to be an effort by the entire LMA Community, not just the Create A Smile club. Create A Smile will be putting on multiple events this month to help raise money, so please be on the lookout for those!

Thank you and have a great long weekend!

Please donate below!

LMA’S Fundraising Page for CHOC Pediatric Cancer Research:

https://raiseup.choc.org/event/projectgoldribbon

Amani Shezad - President of Create A Smile

Alyssa Aranda - Vice President of Create A Smile