Bulldog Bulletin

Volunteer Appreciation Day - Friday, June 7th

Being a member of the Richmond school community means that you will have access to numerous fun events, activities, enrichment opportunities, and cultural experiences throughout the year. Those are the moments that make school memorable for our students and they support a feeling of belonging within our school community for each of our families.

All of these moments that make Richmond so special are only possible thanks to our incredibly dedicated, kind and supportive volunteers. Our school staff, Richmond PTA and Oya No Kai would like to thank all of our wonderful volunteers for supporting our school this year. We hope that you know how much we appreciate your time and energy.

Please join me on Friday, June 7th at 2:15-4:00pm to celebrate our Richmond volunteers with a frozen treat from Kona Ice!

The Kona Ice truck will be parked outside the east playground gate at Richmond. There will be volunteers nearby passing out vouchers to anyone who volunteered at Richmond this school year. Just let them know what type of volunteering you did to receive your voucher for a frozen treat. Families can also purchase shaved ice from the Kona Ice truck, so all are welcome!

Speaking of volunteers… 😁

5th Grade Promotion Volunteers Needed!

Hello Richmond families!

5th grade promotion is around the corner and we are still looking for a couple more volunteers to make this memorable ceremony a success!

Please check the Signup Genius below and sign up if you have your spare time!

Thanks!

From the Promotion Committee

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B48AEAF23A2FA7-49735950-5thgrade

The リッチモンド Way 🎶

Kelley Albrecht, a 2nd grade Richmond dad and previous PTA Co-President composed the Richmondo Way song for us and even created a video so that we can learn the lyrics.

Our current 5th graders will be singing this song at their promotion, and our hope is that we can continue to teach our returning Richmond students this sweet song so that they can also one day sing it at their 5th grade promotion.

You can check out the video to learn the lyrics here: https://youtu.be/QMLrjq1JWM4

Richmond Black Student Union

The next BSU meeting will be on Friday, June 7th at 11:00 AM in room 19.

Juneteenth & Pride Month

”Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth ‘Independence Day’ or ‘Freedom Day,’ is an annual holiday to commemorate the day Union troops enforced the abolition of slavery and the liberation of all enslaved African Americans who remained in bondage in Texas until June 19,1865.” -juneteenthor.com

The Juneteenth Oregon organization will be hosting events this month for the June 19th federal holiday, and the Multnomah county library also sponsors Juneteenth events for our community to participate in.

Intersectionality helps us understand how the many complex layers of our identity can impact our lived experiences and shape the way we navigate the world we live in. As we begin to celebrate Pride Month and look forward to celebrating Juneteenth, we can take this opportunity to teach our students about the Black activists who played a vital role in the gay rights movement.

Marsha P. Johnson was an American drag queen and activist who was dedicated to social justice for the gay and transgender communities. She was a pioneer of the gay rights movement in the late 1960s and spent many years advocating for equal rights for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Student Artwork Fundraiser 🤩

The very talented 5th grader Barron Marcus is selling his artwork to raise funds for our school! Please see his message below.

Richmond is a great place to go to school. I want to say thanks by giving back to the community.

To raise funds for Richmond, I’ve made prints of two hand-drawn anime drawings, and will be selling them for $2/each in the cafeteria and at recess.

Proceeds will be donated to Richmond to be used at Principal Eto’s discretion.

Please Consider Running for PTA Executive Committee!!!

As we approach the end of the school year, we face an urgent need to fill critical roles in our PTA's Executive Committee. With the current term ending, we must elect a new President and Vice President by June 14. Thankfully, Steve Lanning has generously agreed to continue as Treasurer for another term—thank you, Steve!

Our PTA General Election is scheduled for the last week of school. Without a President, the Richmond PTA cannot operate, and beloved activities will be at risk. These activities include:

- Ice Cream Social

- New Family Welcome Tea

- Run4Richmond (likely to be hosted by the PTA starting this Fall)

- Apple & Pear Sale

- Harvest Festival

- Bulldog Gear Sale

- Breakfast in the Garden

- Teacher Potluck

- Scholastic Book Fair

- Read4Richmond

- Japanese New Year Festival

- OBOB

- Science Fair

- Spring Festival

- All our advocacy and outreach work

- Funding for Black Student Union, LGBTQ Group, and some of the fun assemblies

- All activities on Konstella

We urgently need volunteers who are a current PTA member to step up and ensure these events and efforts can continue. If you're interested, please reach out to the contacts below for more information:

- PTA President: Oom Marquardt (richmondptapresident@gmail.com)

- Vice President: Ellee Thalheimer (ellee.thalheimer@gmail.com)

For more details, please review our Standing Rules and the Oregon PTA Bylaws.

Thank you for your support and commitment to our community.

Spots still available for Kurabu 2024!

There are limited spots still available for incoming kindergartners through incoming 5th graders in this year's Kurabu summer camp. Give your kids the opportunity to maintain their Japanese language skills, learn more about Japanese culture, and have fun! Learn more and register here.

Kurabu is designed to offer children a bi-lingual summer camp experience that is rewarding, fun and reinforces their Japanese language skills. A typical week at Kurabu would include enrichment class such as cooking, art, music, Japanese language, and an end-of-week celebration for students and families.

All sessions will take place at Mt. Tabor Middle School from 9am-3pm, Monday-Friday. Please note that there is no camp on Thursday, July 4.

• Session 1: July 1-5 ($260 per student)

• Session 2: July 8-12 ($325 per student)

• Session 3: July 15-19 ($325 per student) (FULL - waitlist available)

• Session 4: July 22-26 ($325 per student)

Financial assistance (50% off one week of Kurabu) is provided for students whose families meet the Federal Income Guidelines for Free and Reduced Lunch (self-reported). Guidelines can be found here. For assistance please contact kurabu@oyanokai.org

Scrip and Merch pop up at Rich Coffee!

Do you need some end of the year teacher gifts? Gift cards for summer fun? Consider buying scrip gift cards from ONK. We will have scrip and merch available for purchase at Rich Coffee the mornings of 6/4, 6/6, 6/7 and 6/11. If you can’t make it to Rich Coffee, email saori.clark@oyanokai.org to set up a time.

We need host families for FIVE new incoming interns!

We will welcome five more interns to Richmond Elementary School starting in August! We are still looking for three more host families: one for eight months and two for six months! If you have questions about hosting interns, feel free to email Intern Coordinator Haruka Takanuma anytime at haruka.takanuma@oyanokai.org. You can also find more information on becoming a host family on our website.

Get your ONK-Rose City Riveters collab scarf

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet! Oya No Kai is excited to partner with the Rose City Riveters to offer this special collaborative Portland Thorns towel scarf. Order yours online for $25 from Oya No Kai to support our educational and cultural programs. It makes a great piece of omiyage – or you can wear your Thorns colors proudly in the Hina Sugita fan section of the Thorns match on June 8!