Fifth Grade Tag Sale this Saturday!

The Fifth graders at Fort River are organizing a Tag Sale to help fund their upcoming field trip to Lowell, MA.  Please help support their efforts by attending the tag sale this Saturday at Fort River School (by the basketball courts outside the gym) from 10 am- 2 pm. There will be games and face painting, so bring the whole family and please spread the word to family and friends!

Missing Winter Wear?

All Lost and Found items will be in the FR Lobby next week (4/30-5/4) and all unclaimed items will be donated at the end of the week. Please come check the table anytime to find that missing mitten or fleece jacket you didn't know was missing!! 

Science Night - Fri May 4

Fort River Science Night - THE HUMAN BODY !!
FRIDAY, May 4th 6:30-8 pm

Ever wonder … how it feels to perform CPR? … what happens to lungs when you exercise or have an asthma attack? … how to read X-Rays and plaster a cast? Come join us for an evening of learning about the human body and common ailments such as diabetes, asthma, celiac disease & allergies. We’ll have CPR mannequins to practice on, X-Rays to read, casts to plaster, and much, much more.

Presented by Healthcare Professionals in the Fort River community.
Friday, May 4th, 6:30 to 8 pm at the Fort River Gym.

6th Grade Art/Architecture Show - May 9

Save the date for a very special ART Show featuring 6th Grade 3D Art & Architecture!  Drop in to the foyer of Fort River School on Wednesday, May 9th from 5:00pm-7:00pm and view the work of all Fort River 6th grade students:

• traditional and contemporary barns by Peter Lamdin’s class
• contemporary homes by Kaitlin Leaver’s class
• downtown shops/stores by Roger Wallace’s class

Cultural Heritage Fair

The PGO is hosting a "Cultural Heritage Fair" on Wednesday, May 23.  If you, your child(ren), or someone you know can share your/their talent, skills, or treasures with the Fort River community to showcase a cultural heritage, be it generationally inherited or just recently adopted, please contact Reiko Sono, via email (rsono@asianlan.umass.edu).

We welcome any genre, from music and dance to martial arts, craft, etc, at any skill levels.  Please help us make this event interesting, educational, and, most importantly, FUN!

Weekend Activities - UMass Football Clinic and Soccerfest

UMASS Athletics FREE Football clinic for kids
UMASS Athletics Department is offering a FREE youth football clinic for all kids 12 and under!  This clinic is on Saturday, April 28th from 1:00-2:30pm at McGuirk Stadium, and will be run by the UMass Football team. The clinic will feature football drills and other fun athletic activities and will be preceded by a FREE autograph session with the team from 12:30-1:00pm.

Following the Sports Clinic there will be a UMass Spring Football Game, which will pair the Minutemen against a team of alumni players. The Spring Football Game is set to kick off at 4pm at McGuirk Stadium.

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Soccerfest
Come on Saturday April 28th to the 10th anniversary of SoccerFest at UMass!  The ‘Off the Wall Games’ Fun Zone will open at 9:00 AM and features attractions such as Inflatables, Puma Skills Challenge, Home Run Derby, Off the Wall Games Scavenger Hunt, Kristian Rose Scholarship Dunk Tank, John Amaral Soccer Camp Clinic Sessions, and Bart’s Pie Eating Contest.   See www.soccerfest.org for more information.

These events are not sponsored by the FR PGO.

Seussical

Starlight’s Youth Theatre proudly presents Seussical, the musical which brings Dr. Seuss’ imagination to life. Friday, April 27th 7 pm, Saturday, April 28th, 2pm & 7 pm, and Sunday, April 29th 2 pm at the South Hadley High School auditorium, Rt. 116 in South Hadley. Plan to come enjoy this delightful musical with an exuberant all-youth cast from all over the Valley. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for youth/senior citizens and are available online at http://www.starlights-youth-theatre.com/ or at the show.

This event is not sponsored by the FR PGO.

Run/Walk for a Good Cause!

Two exciting races are coming up the next 2 weekends:

This Sunday, The 2nd annual Daffodil Fun Run to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters starts at Kendrick Park in Amherst at 11:30.  Run or walk through the center of town and help a great cause!  More information is available here. T-shirts feature a design by sixth grade Fort River students!

The Amherst Education Foundation (AEF) holds the 2nd Annual Spring Sprint, a 5K Run/Walk and a 1 mile Fun Run for kids, on May 5th at 9:00 am, beginning and ending at Wildwood Elementary School. As a special bonus this year, local artist and author Tony DiTerlizzi of the Spiderwick Chronicles designed the t-shirt. All pre-registered participants will get a t-shirt, so register today! You can find both a mail-in registration form  here. Remember – in order to get a special t-shirt, you must PRE-register by April 29th online.

These events are not sponsored by the FR PGO.

Multi-Arts Theatre

“The Girl Who Didn’t Listen to Her Mom”.   Multi-Arts will participate in the opening of the Amherst Strong House Museum, during the Arts Walk festivities on Thursday May 3. We will show an abbreviate version of our original historical play “The Girl Who Didn’t Listen to Her Mom”. This humorous account brings local history to life for children and adults.   Show times: 5:30 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.

Admission is free but donations are greatly appreciated.  The complete show “The Girl Who Didn’t Listen to Her Mom” can be watched on Saturday May 12, at 3:30 at Jones Public Library.  Free Admission.

These events are not sponsored by the FR PGO.

Ultimate Tournament May 5-6

21st Annual Amherst Invitational Tournament  Sat. May 5th and Sun. May 6th
Thirty high school teams from coast to coast will compete in one of the largest and most prestigious Ultimate tournaments in the country. Founded in 1992 by ARHS Boys Varsity Coach Tiina Booth, the first year had only 8 teams show. This year, the 21st year, 538 athletes and 60 coaches and chaperones from seven states will participate in the tournament. To orchestrate this growing event, there are 17 (all-volunteer) committees that handle every aspect of the tournament. This is truly a community event!

For schedules, times, locations, and much more information on the tournament, see: http://www.facebook.com/amherstinvitational.

This event is not sponsored by the FR PGO.

League of Women Voters Amherst Used Book Sale

The League of Women Voters Amherst will hold their 64^th annual used book sale on the Amherst Town Common May 4, 5, and 6.  Sale hours are 9 am to 7 pm Friday and Saturday and 11 am to 4 pm on Sunday.

Thousands of donated used books will be sold.  Books are sorted by category; popular categories include cookbooks, children’s books, history, foreign languages, gardening, sports, and fiction. Books are priced from 50 cents up, with many books in the $2-$4 range.  For additional information, call 253-0633 or visit www.lwvamherst.org.  The book sale is one of the oldest and largest in New England.  It serves as the major fund raiser for the League and helps finance voter service programs and publications.

This event is not sponsored by the FR PGO.

Amherst and UMASS Police Youth Adventure Academy 2012

The Amherst and University of Massachusetts Police Departments are pleased to announce the dates of the Amherst and UMASS Police Youth Adventure Academy.

The 2012, Amherst and UMASS Police Youth Adventure Academy is a ONE week program, being held Monday July 9, 2012 to Friday July 13, 2012, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Youths entering 6th, 7th, or 8th grades are eligible to attend.   The cost is FREE and academy size is limited to 20 youths, so preference will be given to Amherst residents and UMASS affiliated families (ex. parent/guardian works or is a student at UMASS).  For more information, click here.

This event is not sponsored by the FR PGO.

 

Fifth Grade Tag Sale Fundraiser

The Fifth graders at Fort River are organizing a Tag Sale to help fund their upcoming field trip to Lowell, MA. They will need a lot of support from Fort River families to make this venture a success! Please help support their efforts by donating items for the tag sale. Some suggestions for items to donate include furniture, household items, sporting equipment, toys and books. Donations may be dropped off at the school (Jen Pablico's classroom) from Monday 4/23 to Wednesday 4/25.  You can also help by attending the tag sale this Saturday at Fort River School (by the basketball courts outside the gym) from 10 am- 2 pm. There will be games and face painting, so bring the whole family and please spread the word to family and friends!   

Thanks to everyone for making the Book Swap a big success!

Thank you to the families, staff, and community members who donated books to our Swap. We had a wonderful selection of books for our students and they certainly seemed to enjoy making their selections.  Special thanks to organizers Libby Stanforth and Deb Leonard, and the people who volunteered to help set up and work the Swap: Becky Michaels, Carol Slaughter, Pam Rietkerk, Sue Borden, Becky Schneider, Jenn Green, Katie Clarkewright, Eileen Marasco, and Shubha Tewari. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Thanks also to Fran Ludington, who welcomed us into the library and was instrumental in making the Swap a success.

Amherst Sustainability Festival

The Amherst Sustainability Festival will be held on Saturday April 21.

Discover Your Downtown Eco-Hero!
Look for the green Eco-Hero Hunt posters in downtown store windows and learn what Amherst is
doing to save energy and natural resources! Participation is easy: Read about the sustainable actions
downtown businesses are taking, complete a simple quiz, and enter a raffle to win great prizes. Start
hunting on Saturday, April 14; entry forms and collection boxes will be available at A.J. Hastings,
Subway, and The Toy Box. The Hunt ends after the Sustainability Festival on Saturday, April 21.

Recycle and Reuse Textiles! Collection on Saturday, April 21st.
People often donate wearable clothing and household textiles to charitable organizations, but what
about the worn, torn and stained stuff? The Re-Thread Textile Collection at the April 21 Sustainability
Festival wants it all—the wearable and the woebegone, the stylish and the shameful, as long as it is
clean and dry. Wearable items will be divided between the Amherst Survival Center and the Fisher
Home Hospice Shop, other items will be sent to the textile market for recycling. An estimated 260,000
tons of textiles is sent into landfills and incinerators when 95% of it is reusable or recyclable. Clean
out your closets and bring discards to the Town Common between 10am and 4pm on Saturday, April
21. Each bag donated receives a prize drawing entry for a gift certificate to a local clothing store. The
Collection will not be held if the Sustainability Festival is canceled due to rain. More information here or find it on the Town website at www.amherstma.gov .

BBBS Daffodil Fun Run is Coming Up!

The 2nd annual Daffodil Fun Run to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters will be on April 29 starting at Kendrick Park in Amherst.  Run or walk through the center of town and help a great cause!  More information is available here.

This event is not sponsored by the FR PGO.

AEF Spring Sprint registration is open!

The Amherst Education Foundation (AEF) is excited to be registering runners/walkers for its 2nd Annual Spring Sprint, a 5K Run/Walk and a 1 mile Fun Run for kids. This year’s race is scheduled for May 5th at 9:00 am, beginning and ending at Wildwood Elementary School. As a special bonus this year, local artist and author Tony DiTerlizzi of the Spiderwick Chronicles designed our t-shirt. See the shirt online. All pre-registered participants will get a t-shirt, so register today! Also new this year – kids can use a pledge form to collect donations for their run/walk. You can find both a mail-in registration form and the pledge form attached here. Remember – in order to get a special t-shirt, you must PRE-register by April 29th online, or by April 21st through the mail.

This event is not sponsored by the FR PGO.

Summer Camps

Summer is on the way!  Here are a few more summer camp options:

Girl Scout Camp Lewis Perkins in South Hadley

AYSA summer soccer camp

LSSE Summer Sports Camps

These events are not sponsored by the FR PGO.

Family Literacy Night Thank You's

Wednesday evening's Family Literacy Night was a huge success!  After a well-attended PGO meeting, parents enjoyed a fantastic and informative presentation by Linda Castronovo on encouraging literacy in our children, while the kids worked with Mt. Holyoke students on an interactive read-aloud.  

Many thanks to all of the families that attended, as well as the dedicated Fort River staff who made it possible:  Linda Castronovo, Susan Kennedy Marx and her Mt. Holyoke college students,  Karen Lowe, Fran Luddington, and Monica Colley.

We also thank Diane Caraker and Ellare Books for holding the book fundraiser for the Serrano-Rosa family.  Thanks to personal donations and book purchases, the book sale raise $450!  Many thanks for helping this Fort River family.  

If you would like to help the Serrano-Rosa family, it's not too late.  Checks can be made payable to the "Ana Rosa Memorial Fund" and brought in to any branch of People's Bank or sent to:
People's Bank
56 Amity Street
Amherst, MA 01002

The Book Swap is here!

The book Swap is next week: April 9-13. This is an opportunity for every student to choose a book to bring home without spending a dime! Thank you to everyone for your book donations! Every class will visit the book swap during the week. Here is the schedule.

We still need volunteers during the days of the Swap to help students choose appropriate books and to help restock. Sign up to help on the Please Bring It website HERE or contact Libby Stanforth at bstanforth@comcast.net or Deb Leonard at dleeleonard@gmail.com. This is a fun event and many hands make light work!

6th Grade Graduation Slide Show

6th Grade Families will be receiving a letter asking for photographs of their 6th grade students for the graduation slide show. Click here for a copy of the letter.

Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements about graduation! If you haven't already signed up to help with graduation, please go to our online sign up sheet CLICK HERE or contact Kathy Brennan at kestrelbrennan@yahoo.com or call 253-4611. We need many more volunteers, please consider helping out.

Thank you!

April 11 Forum on K-6 Regionalization

Regionalization of Our K-6 Schools? RSDPC Forum #1 -- Wednesday April 11, 2012 7:00 p.m.

Town Meeting established the Regional School District Planning Committee (RSDPC) at the November 9, 2011 Special Town Meeting, and required it to hold two open public forums to discuss Amherst-specific specific issues at the beginning of its work: to consider whether Amherst should join with one or more towns in a regional K-6 district.

The RSDPC will hold the first public forum on Wednesday April 11 at 7 p.m. in the Amherst Regional High School Library. This first forum’s purpose is to gather Amherst-specific community thoughts and questions regarding a possible change to the governance structure of our schools.  Information gathered at this forum, and at a second forum (likely to be held in late May), will assure that the RSDPC considers the breadth of matters important to Amherst prior to joining one or more other towns in forming a combined body, a Regional School District Planning Board. The second forum will allow the RSDPC to address the questions and concerns raised by the Amherst community at the April 11 forum.

While ACTV/Amherst Media will tape the April 11 forum for later broadcast, it is important to check out the wealth of materials at the RSDPC webpage on the Town website, amherstma.gov/rsdpc http://amherstma.gov/index.aspx?NID=1623 Questions and concerns may also be submitted via email: rsdpc@amherstma.gov

First Graders: Drop Everything and Read!

To all Fort River First Grade Families: On Thursday, April 12th, let’s Drop Everything and Read! First graders will enjoy some surprise classroom guests during the day to take a moment and celebrate reading together. That evening, we invite all first grade families to a very special pajama party with local author Diane deGroat. Please bring a classmate and your favorite stuffed animal for our storytime event. See this flyer for more information. See you there!

Eat Out for a Good Cause

Please join the Crocker Farm PGO and the Pub as we raise funds to for the “Sabir’s Health Recovery Fund”.

Tuesday,April 24th

4:00 PM – 9:00 PM

The Pub 15 E Pleasant St, Amherst, MA 01002

Sabir’s Story:
South Amherst resident Sabir Anderson, age four and a half, was diagnosed with a malignant tumor a few months ago. Thankfully, cell activity is localized only to his bladder area. While we do not know the length of time it will take for Sabir’s health to be fully restored, his medical team is optimistic about his prognosis. During the treatment and recovery phase, expenses are staggering. Even with customary employment insurance coverage, the costs associated with weekly hospital trips, a 6 week long hospital stay, radiation and chemo therapies, daily medicines, visiting-nurse home care, and any other unforeseen accompanying expenses can be overwhelming for a median income household. That is why we are asking for the community’s help. Participation is simple, have dinner with family and friends at The Pub. They will donate a portion of their proceeds to a fund set up for the family. We will also be holding a 50/50 raffle and accepting additional donations throughout the evening.

Can’t attend but wish to help out? You can contribute your money order or check payable to “Sabir’s Health Recovery Fund”, then mail to:

Sabir Douglas
c/o Heather Anderson
P.O. Box 1078
Amherst, MA 01004-1078.

For more information, please contact the Crocker Farm PGO at 230-3306 or beckydemling@yahoo.com

Amherst Sustainability Festival - April 21

The Amherst Sustainability Festival will be held on April 21 this year.  In addition to a great entertainment line-up (including the ARHS-powered band, Who’da Funk It), this year there will be 110 booths (mix of sustainable artists and vendors), The Eco-hero Hunt and Amherst’s first-ever textile recycling collection, which will benefit the Amherst Survival Center and the Fisher Home Hospice Shop.  All the entries from the 4-6 grade Arbor Day/Tree art contest will be displayed on the Common.  Detailed festival info can be found via this link: http://www.amherstma.gov/index.aspx?nid=683

This event is not sponsored by the FR PGO.