Of Interest to Fort River Families

Please note that these events are not sponsored by Parent Council. Multi-Arts Play Writing Competition: $200 for a play written by children! As a way to inspire children and young adults to create stories and promote their imagination, Multi-Arts invites them to enter a play-writing competition. The winner will get $200 and the staging of their play by children in our summer program. Rules can be found on our website: http://www.multi-arts.org/. Just click on the link to the playwriting competition. Art & drama Workshop: Let's cheer up this snowy winter! Join us for a fun morning of art and drama creativity with our beloved teachers Titus Neijens (art) and Zach Sherwin (drama-playwriting). Saturday, March 15, 10:00 am-12:30 pm, Jones Public Library, Amherst. Cost: $10, $5 for families in need of financial aid; free for low income families. Space is limited. To register, mail payment plus the following information: Name of child; Age; Parent's Name; Phone # to: Multi-Arts, PO Box 108, Hadley MA 01035. This program is supported in part by a grant from Amherst Cultural Council. Amherst Community Arts Center, Leverett Crafts & Arts, and Hampshire Franklin Children's Daycare Center are pleased to present: Go, Kids Art, Go! Celebrating the artist in every child. An exhibition of children's artwork from schools and organizations in the Hampshire-Franklin Region. On display in the Barnes Gallery at Leverett Crafts & Arts, Saturday March 8-Sunday April 27, 2008. Gallery Hours: Fri-Sun, 2-5pm. Opening Reception & Party, Saturday March 29, 2008, 11am-5pm. FREE EVENTS for children and families, including: music, dance, art demos and face painting. FEATURING: The Pop Rockets! A raffle and bakesale will also be held to benefit the three organizations and Go, Kids Art, Go! For further information contact Hillary Milens, Executive Director, Amherst Community Arts Center(413) 253-65, www.amherstarts.org. Visit Japan from your own home! Twelve students from Doshisha High School in Kyoto, Japan are coming here this summer! The founder of Doshisha is a graduate of Amherst College, so the school sends a group to study English here each summer. We are looking for families to host a student: provide a bed, meals, and arrange transportation for the students to and from Amherst each day for English classes (9am - 4 pm). Last year many families worked out carpools. I also organize field trips for the students - Tanglewood, a hike, mini-golf, rollerskating, Six Flags - and host families are welcome to join the group for these events. Some families took it upon themselves to do weekend trips together, or to have gatherings at their homes. I met a great group of kids from Japan, but I also enjoyed a fantastic group of local families.The dates are July 25 - Aug 15. If you can host for all OR part of that time, please call me, Laurie Boosahda, at (413) 665-3111. Do You Know a Family that could be a Friendly Town Host? The Fresh Air Fund is trying to recruit more Friendly Town host families for Summer 2008. If you know a family that you think would be willing to welcome a Fresh Air Fund child into their home this summer, please tell them about our important Friendly Town program! Here are a few things you might want to mention to prospective Friendly Town families: * Children starting out in the Friendly Town program are six to 12-years old, and stay for one to two weeks. * Most of the children in the Friendly Town program have never been outside the city. With your family, every day will be an adventure. Your Fresh Air Fund child will love learning to swim, hike, cook, play cards, and do all the things your family does. * Children and families are carefully matched to ensure the highest probability of a wonderful experience for both. And local volunteers work with and support families to help make sure things go smoothly. * Over 65% of children are asked back again and again, showing that the experience is rewarding for host families as well as the children. * It costs less for a child to spend part of the summer with a host family than at our summer camps. This means that the more host families we have, the more kids get a chance to escape the city. To help The Fresh Air Fund find new hosts, please send your friends and neighbors to http://www.freshair.org/becomingahost.asp. Parent Council President Catherine Sanderson (email: casanderson@amherst.edu) has been a host for the past 2 summers and would be happy talk to any Fort River families who are interested in participating. Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience at the Mullins Center. Discounted Ticket Offer: Enter the code "GSMC" to receive a $5 discount off Thursday (March 27) and Friday (March 28) night shows! For groups of 10 or more please call 413-545-3332. Buy tickets at http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/cwv89l. For more information visit http://www.dinosaurlive.com/. Contact: Scott Sasenbury, Director of Marketing Mullins Center, email: ssasenbury@admin.umass.edu; web: http://www.mullinscenter.com/. A note from Parent Council. We will publish information about non-Parent Council sponsored events with the following conditions: 1. The event should be of interest to Fort River families. 2. The information should be sent to Ann McLaughlin at damclaughlin@comcast.net in the form of a short blurb of 100 words or less. 3. Contact information (name, telephone and/or email address) must be included. We add new information to the blog every Friday during the school year. Please note that we do not accept announcements of items or services for sale (with the exceptions of children's classes/lessons). Inclusion in this section does not imply any guarantees or endorsements by Fort River Parent Council or Fort River School.