It has been a busy year for the Amidon-Bowen PTA. We’ve been able to accomplish a lot thanks to the hard work of a number of parents and community members. Some highlights include:
- Holding a fundraiser that raised $4,000 by allowing people to use the school parking lot for the Inauguration and Women’s March on Washington. A special thank you to Councilmember Charles Allen for helping us acquire the necessary permits to pull it off.
- Winning a grant from Friends of Southwest to create marketing materials, such as a school crest and tiger logo that can be used on Amidon-Bowen gear.
- Hosting a Night in Hollywood dance for female students and their adult male role models. Led by an Amidon-Bowen parent and facilitated by City Year, this event was a huge success with more than 180 people attending the event and dancing for hours.
- Launching a Caring Committee to provide meals and other resources to Amidon-Bowen families experiencing a crisis or in need.
- Establishing partnerships with local restaurants to provide food for school events.
- Sending weekly “digest” emails to keep parents better informed of all of the school’s events and happenings.
- Partnering with an outside vendor to offer language immersion in the afterschool program.
- Buying a tiger mascot costume and then bringing the mascot to several school events to foster school pride.
- Installing two flat-screen TVs to display school news and highlights.
All of these accomplishments are the result of the hard work of parents who have assumed leadership roles in the Amidon-Bowen PTA.
Although we’ve made huge strides this past year, there is more work to be done. In fact, we have a running list of things that we’d like to do next year with more parent and community support. We would love to hear your ideas, too and hope to involve as much of the parent and Southwest community as possible.
The final PTA meeting for the 2016-17 school year will be on Tuesday, June 6 from 6-7 p.m. in the school’s library. We hope to see you there.
By: Betsy Wolf
Amidon-Bowen PTA President
**MINA** If possible: The following in a separate box adjacent to the article.
Newly Elected Amidon-Bowen PTA Board
The new PTA Board for the 2017-18 school year is:
- President: Betsy Wolf
- Vice-President: Dionna Howard
- Treasurer: Martin Welles
- Secretary: Diana Aram
- Community Representative: Bruce DarConte
- School Principal: TaMikka Sykes
- Teacher Representative: Rachel Terlop