News in a Nutshell #5

The Oak Ridge Home & School wishes all families a very happy holiday season! Have a wonderful break, and we look forward to ringing in the new year in 2025 with many great events!

Just wanted to say thank you to all those who have volunteered so far to make the first part of our 2024/2025 school year a success. The kids have had such an amazing year so far.

Laura Lawson - Home and School President

Our next Home & School meeting is on Tuesday, January 7 at 7 PM in the Oak Ridge library! As always, all parents/guardians are welcome to attend. Come join us to ring in the new year and to learn about all that is in store for the second half of the school year!

To keep all families informed about what is happening with Home & School, we will share our meeting minutes each month here in our smore. Find the December meeting minutes at this link.

If you missed the opt-in to receive the direct email of the News in a Nutshell smore during the Directory DASH sign-ups in September, please use this link to opt-in for future direct emails. The distribution list will be updated once each month before the smore is sent out.

Stay up to date on all things Oak Ridge Home & School - bookmark our new Google site!

Thank you Oak Ridge families for your support of our annual Holiday Shoppe and Winter Concert flower sale. We hope you will have as much fun opening your gifts as the kids did picking them all out for you. We are so happy we get to offer this experience and appreciate your generosity. We also send a special thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who gave their time to make it all happen. We made over $6,000 at the Shoppe this year which will go right back to benefit the students!

We are LOVING the creations that are posted to Facebook so far! Thanks to all who are participating. To learn more about the event - it is not too late to join - see the information below!

Thank you to all who participated in our many giving opportunities over the past two months. From the 120 pounds of food collected at Bingo Night to the Thanksgiving Bags highlighted in the last smore to the Mittens and Stockings Drive, we appreciate everyone who was able to help our community! Thank you for keeping the holiday spirit of giving alive!

Mark your calendar for this year's Lip Sync! The sign-up link will come out in January—start organizing your group and picking out your song (90 second limit).

5th Graders: Please work on the program cover over break! Use an 8 ½ x 11 white sheet of paper, include the theme “In Our Oak Ridge Era” and the date 3/6/24 and then scan and email your design to lipsyncor@gmail.com.

We can't wait for another amazing event in March!

The Winter Social is on December 20th from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. in the classroom. Volunteers who signed up through Dashboard will help contribute and/or attend the party. If you're interested in learning more or would like to volunteer, please reach out to us at orhomeroomparent@gmail.com.

Join us in the Oak Ridge gym on Friday, January 17, 2025 (snow date Friday, January 24, 2025) from 6:30pm to 7:30pm for Hobby Night. This is a free event for all participants and attendees (please no drop offs). Whether it be trains, Squishmallows, Pokemon, horseback riding, sports, LEGO, books, Star Wars, and more - students are welcome to share hobbies of any kind! If your child would like to share their hobby, please complete this registration form. Hobby enthusiasts and students not presenting are welcome to attend to support their friends and fellow students. Registration is not necessary for spectators and cheerleaders! Hope to see you for this fun event! Contact Krissy Kilty with any questions at Krissy2024@gmail.com or 856-816-7339.

As we wrap up the calendar year, I wanted to reflect on the success we have had so far and personally thank all the parents who helped with fundraising so far this year. I also want to thank our wonderful volunteers and committee members who come up with fun and creative programs for our students and staff! I am extremely proud to be part of the Oak Ridge community.

This month Home & School was happy to contribute over $900 to families in the community through the Oakie's Caring Hearts program.

We also had three successful fundraising events: the clothing drive raised just over $1,000, which we believe is an all time record, the Philadelphia sports shirt sale raised $900, and the Holiday Shoppe raised $6,000!

Since the start of the school year, H&S has contributed nearly $19,000 to the school community, which is 60% of our planned budget. With our BIG Run of Champions Fundraiser and our other successful events, we have raised close to $48,000. Our next BIG Run of Champions is scheduled for Spring 2027. It is very important we continue finding fun ways to keep a healthy budget so H&S can continue providing financial support for various programs until our next big fundraiser in 2½ years.

As a reminder, we are a 501(c)3 non profit. We accept donations and company matches. Your donation to Run of Champions is eligible for company match and my be tax deductible (where eligible). Please use the H&S email when submitting your company match: oakridgehomeandschool@gmail.com. Feel free to email us with any questions!

25 years ago, a 4th grade teacher entered a teacher raffle at Walmart and won! The winnings were to be used for the school. Since Oak Ridge was a fairly new school, teachers did not have a lot of Spirit wear, so the winnings were used to purchase staff shirts. At that time, Oak Ridge assemblies were called countdowns, so the shirts were designed to match the theme. Enough shirts were ordered to give out for years to come, but eventually ran out. Then during the 25th anniversary of Oak Ridge, Home & School designed an anniversary edition shirt and there has not been one since. Most teachers now only wear spirit wear that they personally purchased. In the past few years, Mr. Ferlick has redone the school logo and Mrs. Mazurek had a goal to have shirts for all staff that represented the new face of Oak Ridge. Mrs. Mazurek designed new shirts herself which were unveiled on Thursday, December 19th! Home & School is excited to gift $2,000 to purchase all Oak Ridge staff new shirts! Look at those smiles!!

We are still in need of volunteers to turn the ropes during lunch recess! Please sign up for upcoming dates starting in January. Kindergarten through second grade is from 10:30 to 11:30. Third graders through fifth graders jump from 11:30 to 12:30. We need at two volunteers per hour to have it! Thank you!!!

Our Yearbook coordinator, Ashley Bilotti, is always looking for your photos to enhance the yearbook. Please send in your photos from the Holiday socials and other events to orelemyearbook@gmail.com. Your photos help make our yearbook amazing!

To stay engaged between newsletters, join our Oak Ridge Elementary Home & School Association group on Facebook! This is a great place to learn about what's coming up next and to ask questions between meetings. Join and follow us now!

Friday, December 20 - Holiday Socials

Tuesday, January 7 - Home and School Meeting at 7 PM in the Oak Ridge library

Friday, January 17 - Hobby Night at 6:30 PM