BOOK BUDDIES MAKING FRIENDS NEAR AND FAR

The EV2 Cares Service Learning Club has sent Book Buddies -- reading mentors -- to a West Omaha day-care center, and a North Omaha after-school program for some read-aloud fun and friendship activities.

A pizza party made the trip to TRI Community United Methodist Church,

6001 Fontenelle Blvd. in North Omaha, even more fun.

The volunteers have learned The Big 5 of Literacy -- phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension -- and have done fun little tasks to expand children's reading skills after they read a fun Dr. Seuss book together. Afterwards, they leave a gift for each child -- a "bookterpillar" made of pompoms to encourage the child to read 10 books and glue the pompoms together into a long bookworm.

The Book Buddies plan to volunteer in at least two more locations before turning their attention to other kinds of spring service projects.

The younger children showed great appreciation

to their middle-school Book Buddies . . . one little girl

even invited her EVVMS Book Buddy to her next birthday party!

BOX TOPS BULLETIN: CAMPBELL'S, TYSON AND COKE ADDED TO FUND-RAISING MIX!

Hello EVVMS Parents:

What do these 4 things have in common? They are simple fundraising ideas that can help EVVMS earn extra money and supplies! Along with collecting Box Tops for Education, we are expanding our collecting efforts to include Labels for Education, Tyson Project A+, and My Coke Rewards:

1. General Mills Box Tops for Education.

Look for this label on your favorite cereals, zip lock bags, and more.

2. Campbell's Soup, Pepperidge Farms, Pop Secret, Glad, as well as magazines you may purchase.

3. Tyson Project A+ includes most of their boxed or bagged chicken products.

4. Coke reward points you may have accrued can be donated or sent in with your labels. We will input them for you. We'll also take the Coke bottle caps and the labels from the 12-24 pack boxes.

MARCH 9 DEADLINE FOR CUPCAKE PARTIES!

In case you haven't heard, our new contest has already begun. We changed it up a bit and have the 3 grades competing against each other for a Cupcake Party. So help your 6th, 7th or 8th grader collect and bring in their labels. This contest ends on March 9th.

All these nickels and dimes add up. So far we have received $225 and will be getting another check for $335 this summer. The Booster Club plans on setting these funds aside for scholarships to children who attended EVVMS and go on to graduate from ESHS. So every penny counts!

Thanks for your support.

Linda Lembree & Wendy Ferguson
Box Top Coordinators

Hooray For the New Sidewalk!

This nice stretch of sidewalk along Pacific Street across the front of EVVMS toward Highway 31 was poured with help from the uncharacteristic balmy weather lately:

Principal Chad Soupir acknowledged that it is a "sidewalk to nowhere" since it ends at the creek east of the school. But it's better than nothing for kids walking to and from school. There's a narrow band of grass along the guardrail that they can walk along, which is much better than the narrow lanes of pavement, especially with winter's ice, slush and snow on the way. But kids who walk will definitely need high boots because of this problem.

Improving Pacific Street from Highway 31 to Skyline Drive is not on the City Planning Department's radar scope for the next few years. So Planning Department officials refuse to improve the bridge over the creek, just as they have refused EVVMS parents' pleas for a traffic safety light in front of the entrance to the school or other permanent solutions to our traffic hazards.

They say that if the city tries to improve that bridge over the creek to install a sidewalk on at least one side, we would have to undergo costly environmental impact studies and so forth. They call it cost-prohibitive.

So we're stuck with a "sidewalk to nowhere" that is better than nothing, and not much hope from government officials to solve a dangerous traffic safety problem.

Hmmph! Please let Mr. Soupir know if you want to help in this ongoing problem-solving process.

EV Squared Cares Receives Thank-You From Womenade

The service learning club, EV Squared Cares, raised $300 in November and December and became a major donor in its first year to the Elkhorn civic group, Womenade.

EVVMS parent and Womenade representative Robin Heller said the group purchased more than 70 coats for needy students in the Elkhorn aream, and among other good deeds, helped a single mother with children obtain furniture and kitchen items when previously they had been living in basically an empty house because of extreme financial distress.

Womenade sent this thank-you to the EV Squared Cares students:

"Thank you for your donation to the Celebration of Giving Project. We truly appreciate your dedication to other students in the Elkhorn community. Sincerely, the Womenade Board of Elkhorn"

Booster Club Authorizes Plaques, Eyes Spring Apparel Fund-Raiser

The Booster Club voted to fund a plaque recognizing outstanding boy and girl 7th and 8th grade athletes at the end of the year. A similar academic recognition program is on its way as well.

The parents' group heard a report that $1,350 was our net gain in EVVMS apparel sales efforts last fall. Three cheers to Jill Bartosh! She is hoping to add many new items to the most popular clothing items in a spring fund-raiser coming up.

Booster Club President Theresa Johnson said the health screening that starts on Monday, Jan. 16, at 8:15, could always use additional volunteers. If you can help, email her at mommatathome@cox.net

Parents praised the Science Fair that was in December, and asked for a flyer about it to be sent home to parents well in advance so that more students will have a chance to participate.

Principal Chad Soupir said teachers returned from the break rarin' to go, with great ideas, and a stronger commitment to connecting relationally with each and every student -- a crucial aspect of the middle school experience. He also said there will be presentations on preventing and dealing with bullying coming up. He urged any students or parents with a concern about possible bullying, ridicule or other hurtful behavior to email him or school counselor Teri Schaefer, with a promise of confidentiality if you desire it, and they will use their extensive training in handling these situations for all students' benefit.

He also announced that standardized testing will begin with the writing assessment for eighth-graders Jan. 25-27, and most of the rest of the testing will take place beginning the last week of March.

Three cheers for quality activities at EVVMS:

-- Computer Club is starting up with a meeting at 3:20 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, in the media center with Ms. Geis.

-- Campus Life, a Christian youth group, is starting up at 7 a.m. Monday, Jan. 23, in the auxiliary gym, continuing at 7 a.m. Mondays through the semester.

-- Math Counts has its first competition on Jan. 27.

-- Several students will participate in the All State Band coming up.

Productive Booster Club Meeting Kicks Off 2012 By Creating a Scholarship Fund

The EVVMS Booster Club voted Tuesday to allocate $1,000 per year for a Booster Club scholarship fund that will eventually assist one girl and one boy student upon graduation from Elkhorn South High School.

The two $500 scholarships will be raised through the simple practice of clipping BOX TOPS from food packaging labels, and sending them to school. So here's just another reason to send those BOX TOPS in, and have all your friends, neighbors and co-workers collect them for us, too.

The first year the scholarships will be awarded will be 2016, when our present eighth-grade class is graduating from high school.

The Elkhorn Public Schools Foundation will administer the scholarship process, as it has done for other Booster Clubs in the district. Through a blind selection process, the future EVVMS Booster Club will select which EVVMS graduates receive our Booster Club scholarships after four years of high school.

The scholarships apply for any kind of post-secondary education, and all EVVMS graduates will be eligible.

MR. KOUNOVSKY'S CLASS GETS BOX TOPS 'BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS'

Congratulations to Mr. K's "Storm Time" students! They brought in the most Box Tops for our Booster Club fund-raiser. Mr. K, the P.E. teacher, encouraged his students to collect 963 Box Tops. They won a delicious free breakfast of fresh fruit, doughnuts and orange juice, donated by Hy-Vee at 180th and Pacific Streets.

Mr. Kounovsky, left, with his Box Top champions.

Second place went to seventh-grade Social Studies teacher Morgan Jarabe's group, with 605 Box Tops. Third were eighth-grade Reading teacher Bethany Grzywa-Birge's students, with 486. They also got yummy free breakfasts.

Ms. Jarabe . . . her group came in second. and also got breakfast treats.

If this is making you jealous, GOOD! The next contest has already begun. Over the Christmas holiday, be sure to enlist the aid of your family, friends, neighbors, parents' co-workers, etc. etc. to save Box Tops for you, and maybe YOU can munch the next . . . BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS!