Garden Oaks - How You Can Help

Serve on a Garden Oaks Committee

To serve on a specific committee, please contact the appropriate committee chairperson directly.

Parent Education - Lynn Hall, Chapter Teacher Representative, at lhall1@houstonisd.org. The Chapter Teacher Representative consults with parents about the Montessori program and what they can do to maximize their child's educational experience.

Grant Writing - Steve Pittman, Executive Board Director of Fundraising at stevepittman@earthlink.net. This committee develops requests to various funding organizations for large and small grants that support the Montessori program.

Communications - Stephanie Acosta, Communications Chair, at mamasez@comcast.net. This committee is responsible for a monthly newsletter, this web site, media announcements, flyers, letters, and publicity for the program.

Materials Making - Victoria Arceneaux, Programs Chair, at victoria.arceneaux@yahoo.com. This group assists with building, laminating, cutting, sorting, and copying the learning materials that make up the Montessori "Prepared Environment." Your child's teacher or room parent can also point you to specific materials making tasks.

Pancake Breakfast Committees - Please contact Elizabeth Klein, Fundraising Chair, at eklein@fkmagency.com
Committees involved in the events success: logo design/public relations team, entertainment team, children's classroom auction items team, Admin (letter writing, printing and making copies, stuffing envelopes), Silent Auction team (calling donors, picking up donations, inventory of items), decorations design team, Childcare coordinator.

And of course the day of the event, volunteers are needed too! Decorating, set up, Children's crafts, childcare, monitors, check-in and check-out, coordinating volunteers, flipping the pancakes and cleaning up!

Spanish Liaison - OPEN - This position provides written translations for event flyers and quarterly newsletters and verbal translations for meetings as well as volunteer coordination for Spanish speaking families.

Volunteer Your Time

If you are interested in sharing your talents in the classroom, please contact your child's teacher directly. Read stories, Listen to the children read, Give a lesson in your field, Help with Crafts, etc. Being in your child's classroom, even for a short period of time, has been shown to improve success rates of children.

Underwriting Opportunities

Friends of Montessori needs your support to continue providing high-quality Montessori education to our neighborhood children. And while the program is now an established part of Garden Oaks Elementary School, it continues to face challenges in securing adequate funding to cover the annual costs of classroom aides, materials replacement, and teacher training.

To cover these and other costs, Friends of Montessori must raise $25,000 each year, and individual and corporate contributions always play a big role in meeting our goals. All contributions go directly to the Garden Oaks program unless specified for other needs and are recognized in our FOM publicity and collateral pieces throughout the year. Through the assistance of our financial sponsors, our children can continue to grow and receive the education they deserve.

If you are interested in making a financial contribution, large or small, please contact Lou Ann Taylor at jimktaylor@juno.com.

You may also return to the FOMHouston.org home page, click on the donation button and make a donation through PayPal. Please remember to make a notation to earmark your donation for the Garden Oaks Montessori Program.

Garden Oaks - How You Can Help

Serve on a Garden Oaks Committee

To volunteer with a specific committee, please contact the appropriate committee director directly.

Parent Education - Contact Lynn Hall, Director, at lhall1@houstonisd.org

Fundraising – The fundraising committee plans public fundraising events, such as the annual Pancake Breakfast, Silent Auction, and others. Contact Robin Daly, Fundraising Director, at robin.daly@elpaso.com.

Grant Writing - This committee is exploring different funding organizations. We are seeking a combination of large and small grants to reach our goal of 1.2 million. Contact Katherine Arbiter, Vice President of Wilson Chapter, at karbiter@houstonisd.org.

Communications – This committee creates a monthly newsletter, this web site, media announcements, flyers, writes letters, and seeks publicity for the program. Contact Stephanie Acosta, Director, at mamasez@comcast.net.

Materials Making - Your child's teacher or room parent can help point you toward helping with materials making (laminating, cutting, sorting, copying, etc.) and other classroom needs. Contact Program Director Carmela Holmes at carmelasings@hotmail.com, or 713-692-2704.

We are also seeking people to fill these jobs:

Spanish Liaison - OPEN - This person would make written translations for event flyers and quarterly newsletters, verbal translations for meetings and would connecting with Spanish speaking families as a volunteer coordinator.

Volunteer Your Time

This summer there is a lot of work to do to open our FOURTH Children’s House classroom!

We will have 4 workdays per month.

We need your help with -

Your time in this venture will go towards your 20 hours of volunteer service. For more information, visit the Calendar page.

Underwriting Opportunities

The program at Garden Oaks has proven results and is thriving with the recent addition of a third Children’s House classroom. The Friends of Montessori needs your support to continue providing the high quality Montessori educational experience to our neighborhood children. The program is now an established part of Garden Oaks Elementary School, but continues to face challenges in securing adequate funding to cover the costs of the classroom aides, materials updates and/or replacements for older classroom materials.

To continue providing excellence in education through the program at Garden Oaks Elementary, the Friends of Montessori must raise $20,000 annually. Contributions will directly affect our ability to persevere. Annual endowments will be recognized in all publicity and collateral pieces through the Friends of Montessori. Through the assistance of our Financial sponsors, our children will grow having the education they deserve.

Interested in contributing?

Donations large and small will help reach our goal, contact Shana Tatum at sstatum@earthlink.net for more information.

 

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