Halloween didn't seem to slow down our Bears' progress on the Read-a-Thon. As of Thursday evening, our BGS kids have read more than 88,000 minutes and collected pledges of just over $5,000! Our sponsors have been so generous to the 20% of Bears who are fundraising so far.

The Read-a-Thon closes out on November 10th. Remember if BGS reads 100,000 minutes and raises $7,500, we're duct taping our Principal, Mrs. Binford, and one of our PTO Presidents, Kelly Schmidt, to the wall! We've heard several of the classrooms are all abuzz with the prospect of this, so please keep your kids reading and gathering sponsors.

Not fundraising yet? There's still time to get sponsors to support your reading efforts. Even a $5 pledge helps us to provide activities such as our author visits and science assembly for the school. If you need your student's login information again, please reach out to their teacher or to bgsptopresident@gmail.com.

If you or your family/friends pledged money offline, remember they can send their cash pledge or check made out to BGS PTO to school in an envelope marked "Whooo's Reading Chair". Be sure to note who the pledge is supporting by indicating the student name and class.

If you're still not quite sure what this activity is all about, be sure to check out the article in last week's Friday Features here.

On Thursday, November 15th our PTO will host a dinner for staff who are working into the evening during Parent-Teacher Conferences. Our theme for this dinner is a Soup-er Dinner for our Super Staff. We're looking for soups and one-pot meals and salads. We expect about 30 staff members to be at the dinner.

You can drop off your items anytime on Thursday. We just ask that if you are dropping off a hot item, you bring it pre-heated between 3:30 and 3:45. We don't have sufficient means to heat items on site, but if the item is in a crock pot, we can plug that in there.

Or if you would prefer to make a contribution towards the meal, please send in any donations in an envelope marked "Faculty Meals".

Let us know how you can help make this evening special, sign up here: http://bit.ly/SouperMeal

On Friday, November 16th at 11:30, Bradley Gardens School, in conjunction with the PTO, is planning to hold our twelth annual school-wide Thanksgiving Feast. All students and staff join together as a school family to share a full catered Thanksgiving dinner. This special gathering is a unique occasion celebrated at Bradley Gardens School in remembrance of and in keeping with the spirit of the first Thanksgiving.

This BGS tradition provides our students with a fun, delicious and meaningful experience. The PTO will be hosting the feast during the four-hour session day with our cafeteria closed. Because this is a catered event, we'll need an accurate headcount of those participating. Forms will be sent home next week must be returned by Nov. 13th, along with $8 cash or check made payable to BGS PTO, in order to participate. For your convenience, you can register and pay via Signup Genius here: http://bit.ly/FeastRSVP or download the form below and return it.

The PTO will ensure we have the main course (turkey and all the fixings), but we would appreciate donations of desserts. We'll also need helpers to set up, serve, and clean up from the event. If you can make a dessert contribution or help serve, signup here: http://bit.ly/FeastHelp.

Six years ago New Jersey was stuck by Hurricane Sandy. As a result of this disaster, a NJ resident decided to turn Black Friday into Track Friday. He started the organization, Track Friday. The idea is turn the day after Thanksgiving into a day of charity, community and health. The first year funds raised were for Hurricane relief. In the years since, funds raised have gone to a number of charities.

Here's how it works... You decide how much you want to run or walk and how much you want to raise and to whom you want to donate. The first meetup was in Middletown, NJ. Six years later there are meetups in various other towns. We'd like to have a meetup that day at Bradley Gardens. Just come out on Friday, November 23rd anytime between 10:00am and 1:00pm. Run or walk a few laps, meetup with some friends and give to the charity of your choice.

You can check out trackfriday.org for more information. But before we register our school as a meetup, we'd like to make sure we have enough participation. So please, let us know if you'd be interested in attending by RSVP'ing on our Signup Genius here: http://bit.ly/BGTrackFri. If we have enough interest, we will register with the organization and make Bradley Gardens a meetup.

Ends Nov. 19

Gift cards for 1000+ stores delivered directly to our school in time for the holiday season! Not interested in holiday shopping? You can also purchase gift cards for your groceries. Simply pay the regular cost for a gift card and our school gets a percentage of the purchase price. If you missed the flyer sent home this week, you can find it below.

Questions? Contact Minal Patel for more info.

Starting to do some holiday shopping on Amazon? Why not earn money for the school while you're at it? Just go to http://smile.amazon.com and register to support the BGS PTO (we're listed as PTA New Jersey Congress Of-Bradley Gardens). It's still the great Amazon services and prices AND Amazon donates a portion of the purchase back to our school! Just remember to place your Amazon purchases from smile.amazon.com rather than the regular Amazon link.

• Nov. 8-9 - No School
• Nov. 10 - Read-a-Thon Ends
• Nov. 12 - PTO Meeting - 7 PM
• Nov. 15 - Conference Night Dinner for Teachers
  
• Nov. 16 - Thanksgiving Feast (in school)
• Nov. 15-16, 19-21 - Half Days for Conferences
• Nov. 19 - Gift Card Orders Due
  
• Nov. 22-23 - No School
• Nov. 23 - Track Friday - 10 AM - 1 PM - BGS Fields