Thursday, November 20, 2025

Your weekly Thursday Three: community updates, our impact, and moments of gratitude and celebration from the D39C parent community.

Giving Tree:
Please join the D39 Community in participating in Giving Tree, a program that helps support those in need this holiday season. Within each of your classroom Konstella groups (and below!), you'll find a grade-level specific way to help! 

TL;DR (But we hope you read on!)

✅ Want to help plan future events? We need both an events lead and committee members, to help with both the Family Dance and Spring's Celebration of Us. Interested? Email Daniela Marcus, our new Events Co-Chair, at daniela@design39collaborative.org.

✅ How are you not yet sick of how I write these updates? We are looking for a Communications Chair to join the Collaborative Board to help keep families in the loop on campus news and how the Collaborative supports D39C. Interested? Email david@design39collaborative.org. 

✅ Mark Your Calendar 🗓️

Nov. 24–28 — Thanksgiving Break (No School)

Dec. 7- Family Dance!

Dec. 19 - Last day of School before Winter Break.

Jan. 30 - Middle School Semi-Formal Dance, Under the Stars - see attached flier!

Feb. 2-6 Celebration of Us Week;

Feb 8 Celebration of Us Event!

Keep reading (or come back later) for the full scoop...

As we head in to a week-long break from school, I'd like to express my thanks, gratitude, and appreciation for you (yes, you, reading this!). So far this year, you have helped to meet our fundraising goal to support having Impact Teachers (who, per LED reports, are having a huge positive impact on learning), supported Community Nights, and weathered (another) new volunteer process - all to be present for your designers. 

This community is such a large part of what makes D39 special (along with our LEDs, admin, etc.); thank you for continuing to make it great through your engagement and support of our community, campus, and one another.

Happy Thanksgiving.

David 
President, D39C Collaborative


Giving Tree

We're so excited to help make the winter season brighter for some PUSD families, but supporting their need for items. Grade-level links to help support each grade's family are below; items must be new, unwrapped, and in the correct size, and please include gift receipts if possible. 

Please label each gift with the family code and child (example: V01, Boy 9), and if it's a gift card, please write the amount on the card.

Thank you for your generous support of this program.

Tonight: Artist Trading Card Community Night!



Get Ready to GLOW! Neon Family Dance Party! 

The lights are low, the colors are bright, and the music’s pumping — it’s time to shine at our Family Neon Dance Party!

Join us for an unforgettable night packed with glowing fun, laughter, and nonstop energy as students and families hit the dance floor together!

December 7th

Time: 5PM - 8PM

Location: Showcase

We’re also forming a Dance Committee to help bring the party to life — from decorations to glow gear to games. Jump in and be part of the magic!



Celebration of Us Week and Event!

Every year for Celebration of Us (formerly Passport39), volunteers help support our school community with events celebrating who we are together and apart! Volunteers: SAVE THE DATE to help February 2nd thru the 6th over the Designers’ lunch periods! If you’d like to help us plan programming and school day activities, please join the Belonging social group on Konstella or contact Analyn at Analyn@design39collaborative.org

We're also starting to prepare for Celebration of Us Fair on Sunday, Feb 8 - the Collab's multi-cultural fair that's a highlight of every year. If you have a piece of identity that you'd love to share with our community via a booth, performance, or both, please fill out this interest form: FORM. You can also join the Konstella Group HERE (Celebration of Us - Feb 8!), and join us for an virtual information session on Nov. 19.

Questions? Email kat@design39collaborative.org.

I wanted to take a moment to specifically thank three Collab members: our finance team, made up of April Gagel, Sean Putnam, and Noah Alpern. Together, they've put in a ton of work to ensure your generous donations are being used propertly, and have set up some principal-safe investments to help the financial stability of the collab be even better, and to better support our LEDs and community. 

If you see them, please take a moment to express your thanks!