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!

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New Service Learning Club Selling Treat Bags, Making a Difference



More than 20 EVVMS students are working hard in a new club, EV Squared Cares. It focuses on service projects that teach the students about their communities as well as having fun learning ways that they can help others in need.

Treat bags to be sold Friday after school,

featuring popcorn and candy.

This Friday, the club will sell colorful treat bags with popcorn and holiday candy after school. Parents are urged to send cash with their students to buy the bags at $1, $2 or $3. They make great last-minute gifts, so buy several! Proceeds will be split among the Nebraska Humane Society, a local Elkhorn family that the club wishes to bless, and also as seed money for the club's new initiative starting in January -- BOOK BUDDIES -- a reading program in which the students will travel to preschools and after-schools to read with children.

Club members also are going caroling on Dec. 19 at a local nursing home and one other site.

The students sold cookies after the November chorus concerts and raised $300 for Womenade, which has fielded increased requests for coats, toys, gas, food and other needs for Elkhorn families during the holidays. EVVMS parent Robin Heller, a Womenade member, spoke to the EV Squared Cares students about the types of crises that create needs that can easily be met, if more people were like the EV Squared Cares students. Club members also participated in Womenade's mitten drive, producing wrapped gifts for children and families that Womenade identified.

Mrs. Heller . . . teaching student volunteers

about family crises, and how they can help.

EVVMS counselor Theresa Schaefer is the staff leader for this new club.

Husker Great Calvin Jones to Speak at Assembly on "Shutting Out" Drugs and Alcohol

Former Cornhusker football player and Green Bay Packer Calvin Jones will present his life story and exhort students to stay away from drugs and alcohol at an assembly Wednesday morning at EVVMS.

Jones, a standout I-back, experienced the heights of success as a football player, but lost everything when he succumbed to the temptation of drugs and alcohol. Now on the comeback trail, he shares his story with youth in an attempt to help them avoid the pitfalls of substance abuse.

Jones' speech is part of the EVVMS "Four Pillars" leadership series focusing on goal-setting, preventing substance abuse, dealing effectively with bullying, and meta-cognition -- connecting actions and thoughts.

Holiday Gatherings With Your Family: Perfect Time to Promote BOX TOPS!!!

BOX TOPS DEADLINE: FRIDAY, DEC. 9!!!

Whose homeroom will win the breakfast party?!? We'll know on Friday!

EVVMS can really rack up the funds to do good deeds if students and their families will turn in those Box Tops from food packages of all kinds. Though each Box Top makes us only one thin dime, the total will add up to thousands of dollars if everybody helps. And it's soooooooo(30 minutes later)oooooooo easy!

This holiday season, make it a point when you visit with grandparents, aunts and uncles, neighbors and friends to ask everybody to save Box Tops for you. The more, the merrier!

Some students have even asked their parents to put a Box Tops envelope in their employee lounge at the office, to encourage their co-workers to help out with the drive. It could be a holiday project for your student to make a nice poster advertising our request.

Parent volunteers Linda Lembree and Wendy Ferguson report that EVVMS is 40% toward its annual goal of Box Tops, and you can bring them in ANY time.

Thanks for Board Game Donations!

A big thank-you from the after-school board game club, to donors of numerous new and gently-used games that the students are enjoying.

Club sponsor and Social Studies teacher Andrea Zumbrennen and the students in the club appreciate their kindness.

Lunchtime "Mix It Up" Is Good Communications Training

Oh, the agonies and ecstasies of middle school lunch periods! Here's a generic photo, not of EVVMS students, but it captures the excitement:

Twice a year, for a week in the fall and a week in the spring, Principal Chad Soupir likes to "Mix It Up" by requring students to sit with somebody new at the lunch table, instead of the same-old, same-old. It's a great way to make new friends and learn communication skills that will serve you well as you go through school and into the work world.

Mr. Soupir uses a fun set of lunchroom mixer questions and activities to draw everyone out. If any student has any ideas for future mixers or an even better way to inspire new friendships at EVVMS, please talk to Mr. Soupir and "cook something up."

Scorers Table Has Scored BIG!

EVVMS student-athletes, coaches, parents and fans are all extra grateful for the beautiful scorers table which a number of EVVMS booster companies and families made possible with fund-raising this past fall.

Hats off to parent volunteers Heather Brady and Scott Norvell, who raised more than enough money from a core group of sponsors for the scorers table and sponsorship banner. The Booster Club will take up how to spend the excess at a later date.

Though Principal Chad Soupir was at first a little skeptical that a high-tech scorers table was really necessary for middle-school athletics and events, he said, "Now that we have it, we wouldn't want to be without it."

It sure beats the typical wiggly table with cords going everywhere, kids balancing the buzzer on their lap, papers going flying, and other annoyances, he said.

8th Grade Celebration Planning Under Way

The 8th Grade Celebration has been set for May 18, 2012, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. It may be the most anticipated event of the entire middle school experience, so save the date!

The dance might or might not have lights like these,

but one thing's clear: it'll be a fun evening!

Parent volunteers Shona Emsick and Mary Sindelar have agreed to chair the dance and fun fest. The Booster Club voted them $500 in seed money at the Tuesday meeting. There are 138 students in eighth grade.

If you would like to serve on the committee, or if you know of a good (and inexpensive!) D.J., T-shirt provider, games provider, food provider, etc., please contact the chairmen. They are particularly looking for a volunteer with good computer skills for a special presentation at the event.

Traffic Situation Still On the Front-Burner

Parent volunteer Amie Rolfes reported at Tuesday's Booster Club meeting that neither the City of Omaha nor state officials of the Federal Highway Administration were able to help us reduce our traffic safety hazards in front of school. This is because there isn't quite enough car traffic and not quite as many students who need to cross Pacific Street to warrant a traffic light at the intersection.

If officials went ahead and put a light in, anyway, then they fear they could be successfully sued in future fender-benders or more serious accidents, since according to their statistically-derived standards, it would almost be more of a traffic hazard than a help to put a light in.

Amie reported receiving some encouraging conversations taking place with the Omaha Police Division and some nonprofit organizations on our behalf. These may result in an effective safety program in the spring, not involving a traffic light, but at least making the situation better than it is now.

Principal Chad Soupir announced that the new after-school plan of assembling all the students who want to cross Pacific Street in the cafeteria after school with a teacher crossing guard, and then going out together into the cold to cross all at the same time, is an innovation which should work well.

He urged parents who are dropping off or picking up their children at the back of the school to please, please pull as far forward along the curb as you can. That way, five or six carloads of kids can be dropped off or picked up at a time. That's much better for everybody than the slow and frustrating one-car-at-a-time pace that happens when every driver wants to park right in front of the school and delay everybody else.

Booster Club Meeting Celebrates a Great First Semester

At today's Booster Club meeting, the check registry was shared, revealing that our brand-new Booster Club has posted an amazing balance of more than $13,000 in just our first semester of operation.

Booster Club president Theresa Johnson

Apparel sales volunteer Jill Bartosh

 

Hats off to President Theresa Johnson and her team, especially apparel guru Jill Bartosh, who have worked so hard to get off to such a great running start. Apparel sales formed the lion's share of the revenue gain, with the school directory and ad sales, concessions, and scorers table fund-raising all adding up.

The next Booster Club meeting is at noon on Jan. 10, 2012. See you there!