PTO Spotlight  - Thank you to all our T.H. Rogers  volunteers!

August

The PTO has been extremely busy during the summer getting ready for the start of the new school year.  The PTO spotlight is shining this month on Paul Clements, Chi Dang, Lynell Grounds, Katherine McGaha, John Grounds, Nellie Naidoo, Li Doyle and Greg Lewis.

Paul Clements (dad to a 5th grader) worked tirelessly on school supplies.  This is his fourth consecutive year taking care of school supplies for Rogers. He not only ordered the supplies, but he also personally delivered each supply packet to every classroom! Chi Dang created the PTO’s new letterhead and logo. Lynell Grounds  (mom to a 2^nd and 4^th  grader) and Katherine McGaha (mom to a 4^th grader) both woke up super early on the first day of school to host the Welcome Back Coffee for the parents and staff. Nellie Naidoo (mom to a 1^st and 5^th grader), Susan Goll (mom to a 3^rd grader), Li Doyle (mom to twin 1^st graders and a 2^nd grader), Deepa Govindarajan (mom to a 2^nd grader), Greg Lewis (dad to a 5^th grader) and John Grounds (dad to a 2^nd and 4^th grader) worked tirelessly over the summer holidays as part of the interview committee to select new teachers.

Theresa Leong (mom to a KG and 4^th grader), Thao Lai (mom to a KG) have been busy with our PTO membership drive. If you haven’t noticed yet, look around your classroom for the moonwalks and jumping kids that they have made to represent the class PTO membership participation.  Hopefully you will find your name on a Jumping kid and if not, there is always time to “Jump in and Join the PTO”. 

Kudos to all our volunteers. There are many August volunteers not mentioned above who made things happen for us.  We truly appreciate your time and enthusiasm.  Thank you to all our PTO members that helped start the school year off on the right foot.

September

Those who can, do.  Those who can do more, volunteer.

This month’s PTO spotlight is on Katherine McGaha, Lynell Grounds, John Grounds, Carl Russell, Greg Lewis, Janardhan Madabushi, Nellie Naidoo, Rigoberto Sierra, Preethi Bhanushali and Sadaf Ebrahim.

Katherine McGaha (mom of a 4th grader) and Lynell Grounds (mom of a 2^nd and 4^th grader) are constantly looking for opportunities to bring our T.H. Rogers community together. Together, they planned the George Observatory event.  It was a huge success due to their months of meticulous planning.  The PTO is very lucky to have such dedicated volunteers.

Thanks to our handy hardworking dads, John Grounds, Carl Russell, Greg Lewis and Janardhan Madabushi for helping in the construction and repair of the tool shed. Thanks to all the volunteers who participated in the Garden Day Event and helped clean up our garden.

Special thanks to Nellie Naidoo (mom to a 1^st and 5^th grader), our “party coordinator”, for hosting a great reception for Dr. Cathryn White. The event was a fitting tribute to Dr. White’s contribution to our school.

Rigoberto Sierra is a full-time working dad to a 4^th grader at Rogers.  He has been assisting the PTO with translating our handouts into Spanish.  We appreciate his talent and time.  Thank you for helping us to include all populations in our school to our PTO family.

Preethi Bhanushali and Sadaf Ebrahim are moms of 2^nd graders. They are responsible for maintaining our bulletin board every month and updating it with the current events. Thank you, your efforts lend additional visibility to our PTO.

Thanks to all the new parents for attending the first PTO meeting.  It was a great turn out!

October

Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.

This month’s PTO Spotlight is shining brightly on three individuals Susan Skipton, Susan Goll and Wei Gao. Susan & Susan spent numerous hours planning, organizing and preparing for the carnival.  Wei Gao, the PTO directory chair, toiled to compile and publish the PTO directory by the October deadline.

Susan Skipton (mom to a 3^rd & 2^nd grader) did an awesome job organizing the carnival. She meticulously planned everything from a screw driver for the Spin Art to the prizes for the raffle. Thanks to all her organizing expertise, everyone enjoyed the carnival.

Susan Goll (mom to a 3^rd grader) co-chaired the carnival. She has been co-chairing the carnival for the last 3 years. This is her fourth year helping with the carnival. Our carnival would not be the same without the confetti eggs. Thanks to Susan we have never run out of eggs at any of our carnivals.

Wei Gao (mom to a 4^th grader) handled our orange PTO directories. She has spent many hours collecting and obtaining advertisers/sponsors for the directory.  Thanks to Wei, this is the first time we have been able to get our directories out by end of October, within 2 months of the academic year.

Kudos to all our Rogers families and staff for helping your PTO meet our financial goal. Your generous contribution is greatly appreciated.

November

God and angels don't get paid even though theirs is some of the most important work around.  Ditto for volunteers.

This month’s PTO Spotlight is shining brightly on our  “Rookies of the year”    Thao Lai, Innes Appel & Cynthia Valentine.

Thao Lai (mom to a KG) has been busy with our PTO membership drive. Her work started this summer, even before the school reopened. She spent countless hours working relentlessly helping the PTO in the membership drive.  We not only achieved our goal but exceeded it.

Cynthia Valentine & Innes Appel our Affinity cards chairs, were so willing to jump in and join the PTO and contribute their valuable time.  Due to their diligent efforts we now have affinity cards for Kroger, Randalls and Office Depot.

Thank you to all our volunteers for making our school spectacular. 

December

Volunteers don't get paid, not because they're worthless, but because they're priceless. 

This month’s PTO Spotlight is shining brightly on Clavel Abaya, La Treace Harrison and, Ardon Armstrong (Teacher Appreciation Committee Chairs), & Deepa Govindarajan and Li Doyle (Buck Store Chairs), & Danna Bonds (Elementary Art Teacher).

The Teacher Appreciation committee chairs coordinated a spectacular breakfast for all our 240 teachers and staff. Thanks to all our parents who brought in a lot of goodies for our teachers.  Clavel Abaya (mom to a 2^nd grader) has been enthusiastically promoting Box Tops and is a co-chair for Teacher Appreciation committee. She has been very generous in sponsoring a lot of the Box Tops gifts.  La Treace Harrison (mom to a 4^th grader) is a full-time working mom, but always has time for T.H. Rogers.  Ardon Armstrong is mom to Phin, who is 10-years old in the Multiply Impaired division of our school.  She has been involved with the PTO for the past couple of years and has taken the Teacher Appreciation to the next level.  Her elaborate tree decorations for the breakfast table were very popular.

The Buck Store is a biannual incentive based program for our K-4 grade kids.  The children look forward to earning and spending their Rogers bucks.  Deepa Govindarajan (mom to a 2^nd grader) has been involved with Buck Store for the past 2 years.  Li Doyle (mom to twin 1^st graders and a 2^nd grader) has been the co-chair for Buck Store and they both did a wonderful job.

A special thanks to Danna Bonds for handling our Original Works fundraiser.  She had the children make beautiful drawings.  Parents could order items such as t-shirts, key chains or tote bags to print the artwork on.  She always gets it done early so that lucky grandparents can receive them as holiday gifts. 

January

The breeze, the trees, the honey bees – All volunteers!

This month’s PTO Spotlight is shining brightly on the extremely active dads in our PTO. Greg Lewis (dad to a 5th grader), Paul Clements (dad to a 5^th grader), John Grounds (dad to a 2^nd and 4^th grader) and Rich Heilmann (dad to a 3^rd  grader).

Greg Lewis was our PTO president from 2006-2008.  He has always been there for the PTO supporting us in all the events.  This year he has truly been keeping an eye out for us on the very active HISD political scene.  Thank you for seeing the big picture for us!

Paul Clements, our chair for school supplies, has willingly accepted to do it for the 5^th year in a row!  He not only ordered the supplies, but he also personally delivered each supply packet to every classroom!  He attends meetings and always has wise input.

John Grounds worked tirelessly over the summer holidays as part of the interview committee to select new elementary teachers.  Additionally, he helped in the bathroom renovations, gardening day, community building events, and assisted in the Eagle Scout project in the outdoor learning area. Also, being our VP of Volunteers he has organized all our volunteers for all PTO events.

Rich Heilmann is the PTO Treasurer.   He not only handles our bank account, but also takes care of our insurance and taxes.   This is his second year in this very time consuming position.  We thank him for his enthusiasm and hard work. 

There are many dads who are not mentioned above in our list of volunteers. We thank all of you for your precious time and commitment to your PTO.

February

One who does things that count, doesn't usually stop to count them.

Katherine McGaha (mom of a 4th grader) and Lynell Grounds (mom of a 2^nd and 4^th grader) are constantly looking for opportunities to bring our T.H. Rogers community together; this time it was Gardening Day.  The volunteer crew cleaned and planted in the vegetable garden.  Additionally, the volunteers trimmed and pruned the butterfly garden with ample guidance from our Kindergarten teacher Mr. David Embry.

We had a young gardener troupe who helped us in cleaning up the weeds…Leila Sebbar, Elizabeth Grounds, Lydia McGaha , Christopher Russell, Nikhil Erabelli, James Oblitas, Anuraag Madabushi, Jennifer Grounds, Nithya Erabelli, Ryan Russell, Maya Sebbar and Sahana Rajesh. Thanks to all the volunteers who participated in the Garden Day Event and helped clean up our garden.  The PTO is very lucky to have such dedicated volunteers.

Our gardening volunteer list would be incomplete if we did not include our “Rose Garden Angels” Ms. Antonio K. Uri, retired physician from Children’s Hospital at Philadelphia, and Mr. Robert. H. Singleton, retired lawyer. They live in the Village of Tanglewood Independent Living behind Rogers.  For the past couple of years, they have voluntarily pruned and maintained our rose garden around the flag pole in front of the school.  On our garden day they were in our front yard pruning and cleaning the rose garden.  Thank you!

March

Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns.

Renee Maura is a full-time working mom (mom to a 5^th and an 8^th grader) and did an awesome job organizing Walk ‘n’ Roll. She planned everything from the cups for water to the raffle tickets. Thanks to all her meticulous planning, everyone enjoyed Walk ‘n’ Roll.

We routinely depend on our front office staff for help and we would like to acknowledge their valuable assistance and support.

Denisse Villanueva helps us with the publication of articles in the weekly RAM & Rambling News. Often we send her articles in the last minute; even then she always manages to get it published and Spanish translated for us.  John Dixon helps us in copying and distributing all the PTO fliers out for the weekly communication folders.  Deborah Wilson helps us with the contingency fund and with various issues that arise (even making last minute phone calls for dunking booths!).  Sherri Rivera is always there to help us with our last minute requests.  Thank you to all the office staff for the many things you do to help us!