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