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Thornhill Elementary PFC Newsletter

Volume 32, Issue 18, December 17, 2024

Thornhill ElementaryPFC NewsletterVolume 32, Issue 18, December 17, 2024

In This Issue (bolded items are new for this week)

  • Holiday Warmth at Thornhill: A Celebration of Community, Creativity, and Cheer!
  • Contributions for Thornhill Staff Holiday Gifts
  • Let’s Get these Hosted Parties Started!
  • Be Part of Something Stellar: The Auction Committee Needs Your Help!
  • Shop and Earn for Thornhill
  • Calendar of Important Dates

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Holiday Warmth at Thornhill: A Celebration of Community, Creativity, and Cheer!

Rain or Shine Success! Thornhill families from TK to 5th grade braved the wet weather to make our 2nd Annual Holiday Market a huge hit!

Event Visionaries: A heartfelt thank you to Ms. Katy Geisert for dreaming up this incredible event and to Catrina Vrankovich, Sophie Astier, Chelsea Boniak, Laura Borrman for making it happen.

Fundraising for Field Trips: Proceeds will support the 4th grade trip to Coloma Outdoor Discovery School and the 5th grade adventure to the Marin Headlands. Check out the video shared by Ms. Brenna Gustafson at the last PFC meeting, featuring Thornhill students and educators!
Community Spirit: We’re so grateful to all the students, parents, and teachers who created crafts, volunteered, and shopped to support this important cause.

Cultural Celebrations: Special thanks to the BAC Allies Book Club and Ms. Fox for hosting storytime and activities celebrating holidays from around the globe. Highlights included:
- Student-crafted Koinobori flags from Japan.
- Stories like Let’s Celebrate! Special Days Around the World and The Trees of the Dancing Goats.

Bake Sale Joy: The Great Big Holiday Bake Sale offered delicious treats and brought extra cheer to the day. Hip hip hooray for Kady Rachlin and her exquisite gingerbread cake — its decor looked like a magical Black Forest and added a touch of elegance and sweetness to the event!

Couldn’t Make It? Check out the event photos here and HERE to see the magic in action!

Thank you for your support in making this a true community effort—we couldn’t have done it without you and we look forward to more of this awesome energy at the next bake sale! That's right, by popular demand, the bake sale will return in January!

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Last Call for Contributions to the Thornhill Staff Holiday Gift Fund!

Just a reminder that we’re collecting money to show our appreciation of numerous staff members at Thornhill: our PE instructor, librarian, music teacher, art teacher, gardening instructor, secretary, attendance clerk, community schools manager, speech therapist, nurse, psychologist, occupational therapist, instructional aides, STIP subs, student support staff, cafeteria manager, custodians, and resource specialists.

All of these professionals put their heart and soul into teaching and supporting Thornhill students. If you’re in a position to do so, please send your contribution of any amount via PayPal to phillygat@gmail.com or Venmo to @phillygat. Please write Thornhill Staff in the note.


**This holiday staff gift is separate from the teacher holiday gift organized by your room parent(s)**


DUE DATE: Saturday, December 28
PayPal: phillygat@gmail.com
Venmo: @phillygat (last four digits 1432)

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.

Warmly,

Angela & Philly Gatdula
PFC Hospitality co-Chairs
hospitality@thornhillschool.org / 415-513-2499 (text)

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Let’s Get these Hosted Parties Started!

Calling all party hosts! It’s time to put our Hosted Party offerings into high gear as we gear up for Thornhill’s auction, Journey to the Stars!


What are Hosted Parties?


Hosted Parties are organized by a Thornhill parent or family, a group of parents or by our teachers. Hosts share the cost of putting together their event and guests buy tickets to attend with all proceeds going to the Thornhill Parent Faculty Club (PFC) to support school programming.


A Hosted Party can be big or small. Parties can be for parents only or just for the kids. They don’t have to actually constitute a “party”, but can instead be an informal gathering. They are a lot of fun and raise money for valuable programs at Thornhill! Here are a few that we had last year:


Pedi Party

Learn to Ride a Bike

Trivia Night

Holi Party


If you have an idea for a party or even just a few questions about hosting, please email hostaparty@thornhillschool.org and we can help you get it going! The possibilities are endless! Interested? Check out these ideas:

Thanks!

Jill Evans

Auction Hosted Party Coordinator

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Be Part of Something Stellar: The Auction Committee Needs your Help!

Planning is officially underway for Thornhill’s Annual Auction, happening on March 15 at the Bridge Yard in Oakland! This year’s theme is Journey to the Stars, and we’re ready to make it a night to remember. Want to get involved? WE NEED YOUR HELP to make this event truly stellar!

1. Auction items or services: Have a vacation home you'd be willing to share for a weekend? Or maybe you're a tech whiz or a handy-human who could offer your time? Or perhaps you own a restaurant or are willing to host a tasting of pre-ban absinthe or (more realistically) whiskey...? We'd love to maintain previous items and also expand our offerings this year!

2. Volunteer: We still need a Volunteer Coordinator and a Sponsorships Coordinator. The Auction team is super fun - come join us!

3. Corporate Sponsorships: Don't have an item or a service to share but you've got connections? Help us secure some great corporate sponsorships - we'd love to feature businesses big and small that have connections to our community!


Excited to support? Have an idea? Email Bart Lounsbury at benefit@thornhillschool.org or Tamara Chao at vpfundraising@thornhillschool.org

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Shop and Earn for Thornhill!

Your Visit to Bay Play Supports Thornhill – 10% Giveback All December!

Bay Play is partnering with Thornhill through December 31, contributing 10% of proceeds from purchases made through this special link.


Bay Play is a NEW family-friendly indoor play space in Oakland featuring attractions for all ages, including a 3,000-square-foot playground, arcade games, climbing walls, and more, making it a fun destination for all!

Minted Fundraising Program
We're excited to announce that our Minted Fundraising Program is continuing this year! We’re thrilled to partner with Minted again to raise funds for Thornhill throughout the year, simply by shopping for stationery and custom gifts. Use the unique code below to receive 20% off at Minted when you check out. You can also share this code with your supporters—15% of the net sales from each purchase will be donated back to Thornhill. Our code is: FUNDRAISETHORNHILLELEM

ShopRaise Partnership
We’re also excited to introduce our new partnership with ShopRaise this year! Whether you're buying daily essentials like groceries, shopping for home office furniture, or booking your next trip, the ShopRaise app allows you to raise funds for Thornhill Elementary while you shop online—all at no extra cost to you. Now, your everyday shopping can directly support our school. Click the link here to learn more and download the app.


Good Eggs for Thornhill

Shop with Good Eggs to give back to our school. Good Eggs is a game-changing online market that delivers local produce, organic groceries, chef-prepared meals, and easy meal kits straight to your door. It’s all the quality and transparency of a farmer’s market, with the speed and convenience of online ordering.


Enter our school's GoodEggsForThornhill at checkout and 5% of your order's total will contribute to our school's fundraising!!

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Calendar

  • Thursday, December 19: 3-5 Music Concert at 9:15am in the Multi-Purpose Room

  • Monday, December 23 - Friday, January 3, 2024: NO SCHOOL (Winter Break)

  • Monday, January 6: OUSD Professional Development Day (no school for students)

  • Tuesday, January 7- Friday, January 10: Minimum Days

  • Monday, January 20: NO SCHOOL (MLK Day)

  • Tuesday, January 21: PFC Meeting 6:00-7:00pm via Zoom (details in Konstella)

  • Tuesday, January 21 - Friday, January 31: Read-a-thon!

  • Wednesday, January 22: Read & Feed in the Multi-Purpose Room (time TBD)

  • Monday, February 3: BIPOC Advisory Council Meeting 6:00-7:30pm (details in Konstella)

  • Monday, February 17: NO SCHOOL (President’s Day)

  • Monday, March 3 - Wednesday, March 5: 5th Grade two-night Field Trip to Marin Headlands

  • Monday, March 10 - Friday, March 14: Spring Conference Week (minimum days)

  • Saturday, March 15: Thornhill’s 39th Annual Benefit Auction & Dinner (details in Konstella)

Be sure also to subscribe to the Thornhill Google Calendar here, and download the OUSD District calendar here.

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About the Thornhill Newsletter

The Thornhill Parent-Faculty Club (PFC) eNews team publishes this weekly newsletter each Tuesday in the school year to communicate school, PFC and OUSD news, events and information. We all have plenty of other things to do, but please try to read it weekly, as it will more than likely answer most questions you have about what’s up at school. Information about how to submit to the newsletter is below, but you can reach out to us at any time at newsletter@thornhillschool.org.


Email submissions to our Newsletter Chair, Annie Sartor, at newsletter@thornhillschool.org by 8 p.m. Thursday for approval—nothing sent after this will be included in the following week’s newsletter unless there are extenuating circumstances. It’s fine to include text in the body of the email with links and no formatting, and attach photos preferably as 150 x 150, 72 dpi JPG or GIFs only (not embedded in email or word file). Submissions may be edited for spelling, grammar, brevity and clarity. Advertising and items not related to Thornhill are not accepted, as we need to keep the newsletter focused on need-to-know info for the community.


THANK YOU to everyone who submits articles and to PFC Board Members, Teachers, PFC co-Presidents Becky Gonzales and Catrina Vrankovich, VP of Communications Jill Evans, and Principal Steve Daubenspeck, member of Oakland Unified School District (OUSD).

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Thornhill Elementary
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