Hickory PTA Roundup
January 2024
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From the PTA President
Happy New Year Hickory Families and Friends!
I hope you all had a restful winter break and enjoyed time with your loved ones. As we get back to the hustle and bustle of the school days, I wanted to make sure to extend my gratitude to each and every one of you for the support you've provided to the Hickory community and PTA during 2023. Because of your support we already have some fun activities planned for 2024 like study trips, assemblies, Teacher Appreciation Week, and our first ever Winter Festival. It's a lot of work and resources that goes into every event PTA puts on and we couldn't do it without you!
With gratitude,
Amy Brownstone
Calendar at a Glance
January 15, 2024: No school
January 18, 2024, 5:30pm: Special PTA Association Meeting (Zoom)
January 18, 2024, 5:45pm: PTA Board Meeting (Zoom)
January 26, 2024, 4-7pm: Winter Fest
January 31, 2024: Lost and Found cart @ front gate
February 2, 2024: Lost and Found cart @ park gate
PTA Participant Waivers
This month all students will receive a copy of the PTA Participant Waiver to bring home. We are asking that one be completed per household and returned to your student's teacher. If you have multiple students at Hickory, you only need to complete one waiver by listing all of your student's names on the form. This waiver will be good for the remainder of the 2023-2024 school year. All students must have the waiver completed to participate in any PTA sponsored physical activities like Jog-a-thon, Field Day, and Park Day. A link to the form can be found on the resources page of our website or HERE.
Special PTA Association Meeting
Topic: Special Association Meeting
Time: Jan 18, 2024 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83271437892?pwd=YUhVYVdqdVF1K3NLWGhEZkdYUmViQT09
Meeting ID: 832 7143 7892
Passcode: 187560
Direct Donation Campaign
The Hickory PTA exceeded our $19,000 Fall fundraising goal and brought in a total of $19,131. Because of your generosity we're able to offer supportive and enriching programs to all 850 of our Hickory Hounds.
Winter Festival 2024
Hickory's Winter Festival is almost here! The event will be held Friday January 26 from 4pm-7pm. Admission is free! It will be a great night of fun, food and celebration. Please see our full event page for all the details and to reserve snow sled run tickets.
There are several ways to be involved with the Winter Festival:
- We are in need of volunteers to help with set up, clean up and running activities during the festival. If you can contribute 90 minutes of your time, please sign up! This is a fully PTA volunteer led event so we need your help. Sign up to volunteer here: https://forms.gle/CdEyrzdjfyvV6oWE9
- If you have some items you can lend us for the festival, we would greatly appreciate it! We are looking for tables, snow sleds, construction lights, extension cords, and extension cord covers: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080C49ABAF2CAAF58-47169435-lend
- Submit a student or family poster to the Winter Celebrations Exhibit: Show the community how your family celebrates a winter holiday! Sign up here: https://forms.gle/A8cxXky6K54P6EFs8
- If you would like to donate items to our raffle, silent auction, or pastries for our Musical Treats game, please contact sunnyhickorypta@gmail.com.
Questions about the festival? Contact us at: events@hickorypta.net
2023-2024 Yearbooks On Sale Now!
Online sales for the 2023-2024 Hickory yearbook are now open! This year's yearbook is a 112-page Full Color Soft Cover bound book and will be available for free delivery to classrooms after 6/1/2024. NOTE: Early bird pricing of $19 will rise to $22 after 9:00pm PST on 2/29/24. Get your book early and please remember to save your order confirmation!
PURCHASE BOOKS
Visit https://link.entourageyearbooks.com/my/HickoryYearbook2024 or tap on the button below to purchase your yearbook. You can personalize the yearbook with your student's name for an additional fee.
UPLOAD PHOTOS
You can also upload your photos to the same website for the chance to be featured in the yearbook, along with everyone's school photos. Now accepting pictures from the categories: Back to School, Book Fair, Halloween, Skechers Walk, Movie Night & more! Detailed information coming soon about 5th grade dedications.
If you have any questions, please contact Sunny at yearbook@hickorypta.net
A message to our amazing Room Reps and Volunteers:
A heartfelt thank you for making last month’s class winter celebrations truly magical! Your time and dedication planning, coordinating and carrying out fun and creative activities truly brought so much joy to our Hounds! We are grateful for your awesome contributions to our Hickory Community—we thank you and appreciate you!
Family Reading Night Recap
Those who attended our December Family Reading Night enjoyed games, crafts, extended Book Fair shopping hours, and reading to our special guests from BARK Therapy Dogs: Mary, Booker, Tyrion, and Gadzooks. BARK is an all-volunteer program that encourages children to increase their reading skills and self confidence by reading aloud to certified therapy dogs. We'd also like to extend a thank you to the Madrona Middle School CJSF volunteers for helping us run our games and craft stations.
Book Fair Recap
It's official, the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes the day the Book Fair opened to our Hickory community. Thank you to our amazing Book Fair Committee: Yelli Alcantara-Ramos, Nilza Bertulano, James Bertulano, and Nicole Carlson. Along with their many volunteers, they completely transformed the library into a holiday wonderland that would expand any Grinch's heart.
Food Drive Recap
Thank you to our Hickory student council, Mrs. Kownacki, and Ms. Wand for helping the PTA with the Project Hope Food and & Personal Care Drive. Your donations helped to refill Project Hope's food bank. Project Hope has been a program of the Torrance Council of PTA and the 30 TUSD schools for six years. Their mission is to support the basic needs of our TUSD students who are homeless or in foster care. For more information about Project Hope, please visit: https://www.torrancecouncilofptas.org/project-hope.
Lost and Found
Lost and Found is located in Room 31 at the front of campus. Volunteers are working hard to reunite lost items with their owners but we need your help. Please write your child's name and room number on items brought to school. This will allow our volunteers to bring lost items to the classroom instead of into Room 31.
Please see the Hickory PTA Calendar for the Lost and Found cart rollout dates at the Front and Park Gates.
Program Updates
Spiritwear
Just a reminder that our online store will be closed for the winter while our volunteers get our inventory organized and ready for the new year. Open orders will still be fulfilled.
Adventures in Art
Our volunteer docents will begin teaching Project #3, "A Tribute to the Incredible Life of P-22", to all of our students this month. If you are interested in volunteering as an AIA helper for one of our amazing Docents, please contact your child's teacher for more information.
Membership
Our PTA is now 302 Members strong! Let's keep the momentum going and get us closer to our goal of 400 members. Joining the PTA is a small but meaningful way to not only support the Hickory PTA, but also all of the programs we fund for the school. We will also offer at least one more front of the line entry to another Hickory event for our PTA members this year.
Remember, becoming a member does not mean you are obligated to volunteer. So become a member and encourage grandparents, aunts, uncles, and local business and neighbors to join the Hickory PTA today! https://jointotem.com/ca/torrance/hickory-pta.
Nominating Committee
It's the time of the year when we start looking for members of our community that are willing to step up and serve on the Hickory PTA Board. Thank you to Yelli Alcantara-Ramos, Sunny Joo, Melissa Tyrrell, Loredana Vetere, Stacey Wong, Mary Ishida (alternate), and Munazzah Lathief (alternate) for volunteering to serve on the Nominating Committee. If you are interested in serving on the board for the 2024-2025 school year, please monitor our social media pages for upcoming information on the call for nominations.
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Note: This newsletter does not replace official Hickory or district news. Please make sure you're signed up for email notifications in PowerSchool so you don't miss out on TUSD emails or messages from our Principal, Mrs. Leach.