FINAL WEEK! Thank Your Teachers with a Donation to AEF by June 15

FINAL Week!

Recognize teachers and staff at the end of the year with a gift in their honor! 

Now is the time to let teachers and staff members know how much your appreciate their hard work, expertise, care, and dedication. 

You can strengthen our schools with a tax-deductible gift to Amherst Education Foundation (AEF) in a teacher’s or staff member’s name. AEF will deliver a personalized recognition card to your honoree/s. 

Please make your gift online or send your gift by mail by June 15 to guarantee delivery to honorees before their last day of the school year. As always, thank you for supporting public education and AEF, and thank you recognizing the Stars in Our Schools!

Click here to complete online gift form
Print PDF for mailing here

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Here’s what educators say about Stars in Our Schools:

“Receiving a star is one of the most meaningful gifts to get. I love receiving these because I feel truly appreciated as a teacher, and I know that the donation people make is going back to a great organization that really supports our schools.” - ARMS Co-Assistant Principal and ELL Teacher Alicia Lopez

“I was really moved when I received some Stars in Our Schools cards in my mailbox indicating that the parents of some of my students had donated to AEF in my honor. AEF does very important work to support teachers and programs at ARMS, so a monetary gift is like thanking a teacher twice!” - ARMS Science Teacher Jennifer Welborn

“I have had the good fortune to be honored by parents and members of the Amherst community through their 'Stars in our Schools' donations to AEF. When making their donations, parents and relatives have commented specifically that they see their children singing with joy and self-confidence and that they have an appreciation for music of different world cultures. It is deeply satisfying to know that what we do in the schools gets carried out into the community.” - Fort River Elementary School Music Teacher Anne Louise White (retired 6/2017)

Family Directory Available

The 2017-2018 Family Directory should have come home with your youngest child's last week. If your family's circumstances require additional copies, we have extras in the Main Office -- just ask Karen or Suzanne for one!

Many thanks to Lydia for the beautiful cover art and to Jose and Stacey for putting this together!

Thank you to our Family Fun Fair and Costume Shop Volunteers!

Thanks so much to everyone who attended the Family Fun Fair last week. There was a wonderful turnout and the 6th graders appreciate all of the support!

The PGO and 6th grade team would like to give a special shout out to Pam R and Liz L for coordinating the evening, and to all of the volunteers who staffed tables and/or donated food items. It was a terrific community building event!

Finally, the first ever Free Halloween Costume Store was a huge success! Thank you to Deb L for the fabulous idea, enormous effort, and enthusiasm to bring this new event to our community! Thanks to all the shoppers and those who donated ... there were some seriously cute costumed little ones walking around at the Family Fun Fair! It is sure to become annual tradition! Thanks to all who contributed costumes and shopped for new ones!

Chilly Night for a Chili Night: HOT! HOT! HOT! Thanks to all!

Fort River's annual Chili Night was held last THURSDAY - what a fun evening! The turnout was terrific, and the chili chefs were involved in a heated competition for epic bragging rights. There were 14 mouth-watering chills and the winners were:

Golden Ladle:

Steph Jones for Chili Chili Bang Bang

Best 5-alarm:

Phil Airoldi for Eyeball Sweatin' Chili

Best Name:

Steph Jones for Chili Chili Bang Bang

Kid Pleasin':

Lisa Solowiej for Dragon's Love Vegan Chili

Thanks so much to our Chilly Chili Coordinator, Allison Page, and her hardworking committee: Stacey Beganny, Nicole Blum, and Jessica Spoehnle. So many other parents lent a helping hand to bake bread, staff the tables, set-up, clean-up, make announcements, etc. Community events at Fort River are fun because everyone is willing to pitch in … THANK YOU!

The PGO raised $288 from generous contributions. This pays for 75% of the FREE Directories provided by the PGO!

Finally, thanks SO MUCH to all of the 2nd grade parents who provided the baked goods, 2nd grade students who worked the table and did the selling, and all of our dessert table customers. The 2nd Grade made enough to bridge the funding gap for the visit from Wingmasters and to provide scholarships for the spring trip to Sturbridge Village. 

If you see our winners or volunteers, please congratulate and thank them for making this annual event such a success!

Many Thanks!

MANY THANKS to the members of our community who brought in delicious treats for the staff on the teacher work day last Friday. We heard loud and clear that they were really surprised and most appreciative of the show of love and support from parents. Thanks for so much participation!

Big thanks to PGO Cultural Enrichment Coordinator

Thanks to Dorie Goldman and many Fort River teachers, the Amherst Cultural Council (a local agency supported by the Mass Cultural Council) funded four grant proposals for the following:

2nd grade: $500, storyteller Eshu Bumpus
3rd grade: $350, Habitat Studies at the Hitchcock Center
4th grade: $455, Shangri-La Dance Troupe at the Fine Arts Center, UMass
5th grade: $525, Local Ecology at the Hitchcock Center

Also congratulations to Linda Castronovo who secured an additional $1600 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council STARS program for an artists-in-residency program with storyteller Eshu Bumpus for 2nd graders in March and April.