CHAC/FIRST 5 Presents: Your
November Overview
Greetings Families, Partners, and LTI Community
It’s November and we are
now in the deep heart of Fall. How is the time change for you? Do you
appreciate the lighter mornings to get kids ready? Is it hard when it’s dark so
early? Time to get cozy and find good indoor activities. We hope you’ll share
some of your daylight activity with us – here’s the latest from our centers.
Here’s this month’s news
THANK YOU for a Fantastic Halloween Party!
The
list is long, but it’s so worth mentioning all of the wonderful people who
helped make the party a grand success.
- To the City of Sunnyvale, for allowing us to hold the event at Washington Park, and for Alicia Gonzales & Rick Cotter for facilitating our use of this wonderful building!
- To Marcus D. of Star 101.3 for his wonderful portrayal of Clifford and for supporting our program
- To all of the more than 25 volunteers who helped the day of the event and before (see gratitude section for full list)
- To all of the businesses who generously donated supplies and food
- To SanDisk for their support of employees who donate and volunteer their time, and will match employee donations
- To Jameszini for his wonderful balloon creations
- To Bill and Lisa for the wonderful face painting
- To Jose C and Scott D for your photography
And of
course, to all the families who trust us to provide a quality experience for
their children, and attend year after year. This was our biggest event yet, and
we’re already looking forward to next year.
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The Dare was a Success!
We double dog dared Marcus D. and he came through
in a big way. THANK YOU again to Marcus D. and to all of the people who
contributed and spread the word to friends. We raised $1,230.00 for our program
on Darelicious.com, and donations will continue to trickle in for our Fall
fundraising campaign until early November.
Watch the video proof of
the dare and see Marcus D. behind the scenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_F3NKrrK54
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New Class Coming in January: Family Stressbusters
Life can be stressful!
We live in a very fast-paced world. Family Stressbusters is an 8-week class for
parents to learn how to:
- Manage their own stress.
- Support their partner with their stress and increase connection and ease between you.
- Help children learn to manage their stress and build self-regulation.
- Find more ease and joy in life.
2
Sessions Available:
Session
1: Mornings:
Thursdays 10:30am-12:30pm; January 29 – March 26 (no class 2/26)
Session
2: Evenings: Mondays
6:30pm – 8:30pm; January 26 – March 23 (no class 3/2)
Cost: $360 ($45/session, must register for
all). Bring your partner, and pay only an additional $200
($25/session, must register for all).
Childcare
is available for
$30/session or $25 if all 8 are paid in advance. Single sessions must be
reserved a minimum of 3 days in advance.
Location: Mercy Street FRC, 748 Mercy Street,
Mountain Vie
Instructor: Brandy Vanderheiden, MFT SEP shares the strategies she’s been using
with clients for over 9 years to help people reduce stress and enjoy life.
Developed in conjunction with Dr. Michael Changaris, Psy.D, the class
integrates a mind-body approach with proven approaches to strengthening
relationships.
Registration: http://bit.ly/familystressbusters
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Take the Pledge to Bring Your Bottle, and Get a Free One From FIRST 5.
From now through
November 21, staff and teachers will be making Potter the Otter presentations
to teach kids the value of drinking water and the reasons to stay away from
sugary drinks. During these presentations, if you take the Bring Your Bottle
Pledge, you will get a FIRST 5 bottle for free. It’s part of FIRST 5’s campaign
to prevent obesity, encourage drinking good, clean water and reducing waste!
Did you know FIRST 5 has also launched “Hydration Stations” around the county?
At these stations, placed in local schools, kids can fill up their new bottles.
Get more information
about “Hydration Stations”: http://www.first5kids.org/page/local-agencies-install-38-new-hydration-stations-local-schools/
Go to the Bring Your
Bottle Pledge Page: www.bringyourbottle.org
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Registration Procedure Update – Intakes and Ages and Stages Questionnaires
As part of our agreement
with FIRST 5, Mercy Street FRC (and satellites Vargas, Escuela and Canon) must
provide documentation that we are providing the services that they are funding
us to provide. The way we do that is through our Intakes and Ages and Stages
Questionnaires.
Providing this
information is always confidential. Your personal information is never shared with any other parties.
FIRST 5 uses data collected to get a better understanding of the families in
our community: who are we? What is important to us? What programs and services
are most relevant to us?
On intakes, you are
welcome to decline any of the questions, but whatever you are willing to share
is a great help. A signature must be provided if we are to count your
participation.
Ages and Stages
Questionnaires are a wonderful tool for parents to understand what types of
skills typically happen at each stage of a child’s development. Parents are
often delighted to discover the amazing things their children can do. We
recommend completing the questionnaire with a trained staff or volunteer. They
can help answer questions as you go and offer tips for building skills to meet
the next stage.
When you sign in to
class for the first time, a staff member or volunteer will give you an intake
and either offer you an appointment or give you a copy of ASQ for your child’s
age group.
Thank you for helping us
collect this important information.
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Snack Time at the FRCs: Thank you for the healthy snack donations, and please remember to take any extra home with you!
We thank you for your
contributions of healthy snacks for the children during snack time. This time
of year, sugary treats are so common that it’s worth the reminder that we have
taken the Potter the Otter pledge and do not serve any sugary food or drinks at
any of our FRC events. We want children to learn how to celebrate without
sugar!
Parents have brought in
healthier choices, like fruits, veggies, cheese, crackers and cereals, and we
are grateful for the contribution to stretch our limited funds.
PLEASE NOTE – we cannot
have ANY open food in the FRC cabinets unless it is in an airtight
plastic/glass container. We do not want to encourage pests. During our clean up
event on October 30, we had to throw out several partially used boxes of foods
because of this hazard. We want to be mindful about health and safety and keep
our centers clean.
Thank you for
understanding!
A BIG THANK YOU to all the volunteers who made our 5th annual Halloween Party a huge success!
Amber, Bill, Chris, Christina, David, Francisco, Guadalupe, Jake, Jose, Karen, Kat, Lisa, Lisa V, Laurie, Mamta, Marilynn, Niko, Rosie, Sandy, Scott, Song, Ursula, & Wynn!
Amber, Bill, Chris, Christina, David, Francisco, Guadalupe, Jake, Jose, Karen, Kat, Lisa, Lisa V, Laurie, Mamta, Marilynn, Niko, Rosie, Sandy, Scott, Song, Ursula, & Wynn!
Donations
We very much appreciate all of you who kindly
give us gently used clothing, supplies and toys for our classrooms. In order to make sure that we have adequate
space and good use for your donations, please call us first at (650) 967-4813 before
bringing your donations to our centers.
Thank you!
Holidays
and Scheduled Closings:
Here is a list of
upcoming days we will be closed and class cancellations. Please watch our calendars
for unexpected closings, such as teacher illness.
11/10
– 11/11
|
Closed
for Veteran’s Day
|
11/26
– 11/28
|
Closed
for Thanksgiving
|
12/22
– 1/2
|
End
of year break
|
1/4 –
1/9
|
Office
hours only
|
1/11
|
Classes
resume at all centers
|
- Monthly Father’s Group (Spanish) in Sunnyvale, Tuesday, November 4 in Sunnyvale November’s topic: Leadership
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Feedback: Do you have comments that you would like to send the staff? Please send us a note to:mercystreetfrc@gmail.com
