Who I’m Thankful For...

A message from Sandra Nanney, QAE PTSA President:

I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving week away from school. At the end of November I find myself 1) surprised that it’s November and 2) thinking how thankful I am! I want to apologize that I have not done more snippets of wider communication over the past couple of months with the people that I wanted to thank and recognize. It’s amazing how life can sweep you away…

Mary Rea, mom to Colin in Mr. Backman’s 4th grade class, she signed up to help lead our Auction. Remember to save the date: our annual auction will be on March 13, 2020.

Justin Ward, dad to Benjamin in Ms. Scannapieco’s K class, he signed up to be our Fundraising Director for this year. He is going to help provide some structure and oversight to our annual Fundraising campaigns. You'll be hearing more from Justin soon!

Jennifer Lovin, mom to Eloise in Ms. Belcher’s 2nd grade class & Romie in Mr. Backman’s 4th grade class, thank you for leading the charge in auction procurement.

April Jenks, mom to Kayla in Ms. Dickerson’s 1st grade class, thank you for teaming up with Jenn Lovin in creating and organizing the system and data.

Jodie Scott, Marna MetCalf & Nicole Forrest – What a great Jog-A-Thon! Woohoo!!! Thank you to Nicole Forrest for leading the charge on Jog-A-Thon volunteers that day, it takes a village but it really helps to have to organize each helper. THANK YOU to Jodie & Marna for taking on the big job of putting on an incredible event that allows our kids to run with such joy and to help us raise important dollars for the PTSA.

Cindy Reiner, mom to Eleanor in Ms. Dudley’s 1st grade class and Henry in Ms. Thruelson’s 3rd grade class, thank you for volunteering to be the QAE PTSA Assistant Treasurer. She is going to be crucial in making sure that checks are cut in a timely manner.

Shalini Nilakantan, Lisa Christensen, Cindy Weaver, Holly Albright, Nao Inoue, Tiffany Robinson, Kelli Baker, Meg Kelly, Sharon Breiner, Mary Giliam and many more parents for helping with over 3 hours of popcorn sales, popcorn popping, selling and clean up. It was our first ever Popcorn Fri-Yay! We are already looking at hosting another popcorn Fri-Yay in December.

And additional shout out to Shalini & Lisa along with Chris Gupta for an amazing Chili Cook Off & Bingo Night. I sampled each chili contender and I truly had a difficult time picking out a favorite!

Kay Dumlao Doherty, mom to Luna in Ms. Scheer’s 2nd grade, she continues to help make sure we are talking about race with each other and with our kids.

Andrea Hildebrandt, mom to Theo in Ms. Belcher’s 2nd grade, she continues to help us care for our community through so many green and nurturing opportunities.

Veronika Ziegler, mom to Malcom in Ms. Dickerson’s 1st grade, she is helping consolidate many of the volunteer asks that pop up. There will be ample opportunities coming up that she will need people to help sign up.

Chris Smutny, dad to Kylie in Ms. Belcher’s 2nd grade, he will be heading up our annual Fund Drive campaign (kicks off on Giving Tuesday 12/3). More information to come when that rolls out.

I know there are many others that I will have missed in the above and I wish that I was able to see and share out each individual thank you to all those who have helped make the start of this school year so successful.

I wanted to end by recapping and sharing a story around our Jog-A-Thon:

Thank you to all that participated in the JAT this year. We raised almost $37,000!!! For parent bragging rights Ms. Hartmann’s 4th grade class raised the most money of all the classes. Interesting Fact – The Class of 2021, current 4th graders, have been the highest fundraising class since they started in Kindergarten. We don’t usually recognize individual students for fundraising but I wanted to make a special call out to Sloan Weaver in 1st grade – she was the highest fundraiser this year and had bravely gone from office to office at her father’s workplace to ask for donations on behalf of QAE!

One of our parent volunteer put together this great slideshow of the Jog-A-Thon! Love to see those smiles and the energy of our Explorers!

With thanks,
​
Sandra Nanney
QAE PTSA President