Author: earlhaigschoolcouncil

Spring Festival

Tomorrow is the big day and our organizing team has been hard at work to make sure this year’s festival is tons of fun for everyone. Check out these highlights:

• We have 500+(!!) filled jars for your kids to bid on at our ever-popular Win a Jar station.
• There are 31 baskets filled with thousands of dollars worth of products for our Gift Basket Raffle! Baskets range from family game night to luxury skin care to mega Nurf blaster to the essential spice collection. *You’ll find this station in the Gym tomorrow – be sure not to miss it!
• 20 Earl Haig classes created beautiful art pieces that will be auctioned off in our first-ever Silent Art Auction. *The masterpieces will be available for bidding on in the gym.
• Back by popular demand, our Arts & Crafts station will be led by local fave Fresh Paint Studio + Cafe, and they always bring the fun!
• Come for the fun and stay for the food! Enjoy all-beef, halal chicken and veggie hot dogs, Stock in Trade’s delicious pulled chicken sandwiches, halal chicken biryani, veggie samosas, fresh fruit, jumbo freezies and an assortment of refreshing drinks at the Festival. Not to mention our Bake Sale and Cake Walk goodies! YUM!
• Amazing volunteer-made props for our Superhero Photo Booth!
• And so much more. Honestly, SO much more!

See you tomorrow!

Yard sale for Play EH!

Are you participating in the Danforth East yard sale this Saturday, June 8th? Please consider donating a portion of your sales to the PlayEH initiative. We are sooo close! $19K more before the end of the school year and we are on the build list for 2020!!! Download and display these fabulous posters and maybe your neighbour will pay just a little bit more for that old lamp of yours.

June 6th walk-in

One more way you can support Earl Haig this week! Please join parents, staff and students (bring your kids!) at 8:15 am tomorrow morning in front of Earl Haig for a community walk-in. Rally together with our community. We’ll walk the Earl Haig neighbourhood, then cheer on our teachers as they enter the school at 8:40. Bring posters supporting smaller class size, fully-funded public education, and bring noise makers, too!

Last SAC meeting of the year

Please join us Tuesday, June 11th from 7pm to 8:30pm in the school Music Room (basement) for our LAST School Advisory Council meeting of the school year!

At the meeting, you’ll hear about events, get the latest scoop on our Play EH fundraising, learn about volunteer opportunities for next year, hear updates from Principal Root, and you’re encouraged to share any ideas or suggestions you may have. You don’t need to be on the council to attend – everyone is welcome (especially parents of Earl Haig students-to-be!) and childcare will be available.

See you there!

 

Bake Sale

Please consider baking something for our Spring Festival bake sale! Last year, the bake sale table sold out early, so we’d love to have as many treats as possible to accommodate all the sweet tooths that may stop by our sale. Cookies, cupcakes, brownies, muffins… anything goes as long as it is nut free (and delicious)!

We would also really love to be able to have a variety of gluten free or dairy free treats to offer, too.

Please bring baked goods to the office on the morning of the Spring Festival (Thursday, June 6th).

P.S. Need some ideas, check out this TDSB recipe book!

Cake Walk

We need whole, nut-free cakes for our Spring Festival’s Cake Walk this Thursday!

What is Cake Walk? Think musical chairs meets Cake Boss. This event is almost too good to be true with fancy homemade cakes being given away as prizes!

Please contact Sherry if you have any questions about participating in the Cake Walk. We can’t wait to see your cakes – and don’t forget the sprinkles!

This year’s Spring Festival will be Earl Haig’s 15th annual event! While we supersize the fun this year, we also aim to maintain the community-building and inclusiveness that have been part of our festival since it took root.

Members of the SAC recently chatted with Alisa, a founding organizer of our Spring Festival. Read on to learn how our little festival came to be!

Fifteen years ago during a challenging year of job actions, a group of parents wanted to end the year on a high note for the school community and came up with the idea for a festival. The event wasn’t intended as a fundraiser that year but was meant to re-connect the community. The organizing parents also wanted to make sure the event was inclusive of and welcoming to all. Diversity of food, event cost and types of planned activities were all carefully considered in that regard, and thus began The Festival of Nations! It was a great success and even made money!

As Alisa writes: “It was the start of I guess now 15 years of amazing community building. The event evolved as we added elements, adjusting and tweaking as we went along. While making much needed money for initiatives within the school, the larger purpose was always to create an inclusive event where all of our Earl Haig families felt welcome. It has always been an event that promoted the values and mandates of the school such as eco initiatives and our student talent show! It was an event where families could come and have a fun afternoon whether they were spending $50 or nothing. The food has always reflected the cultural diversity within the school and the events have been more about engagement and being active (crafts, old school games, planting flowers) than anything else.”

While fundraising is important, Alisa notes the true value: “Events like the Festival where [kids] see themselves being celebrated by the adults in their world – parents and teachers – are an important part of creating their sense of belonging in and being part of a community!”

We are thrilled to continue the tradition this year as we celebrate 15 years of our annual Spring Festival. Please lend a hand by volunteering for an hour or so and be sure to join us on Thursday, June 6th and be part of the fun (and our festival’s amazing history)!

* All Spring Festival proceeds support school initiatives and the Play EH! playground revitalization project.