Dear Ralston Families,

Wow! What an amazing start to the school year! Run4Ralston, Fall Festival, Spirit Wear, and Restaurant Night brought in over $80,000 for our school. I would like to thank our PTA team, parent volunteers, parent and community donors, teachers and staff, and all our families for supporting these fundraisers.

We, as the PTA, know that this has all been a lot to ask of our families in just the first two months of the school year. We do these big fundraisers right off the bat for a couple of reasons. First of all, both Run4Ralston and the Fall Festival are very weather-sensitive events, so we always aim to schedule these before mid-October. We do not wish to wait until the Spring, because that time of year is already quite busy (not to mention, the unpredictability of Springtime in the Rockies!) Also, this sets us up so we know how our budget looks to support our school for the rest of the year.

(I would like to note that we unknowingly scheduled the Fall Festival at the same time as Yom Kippur this year. We apologize to the families affected by this oversight. We are using this mistake to ensure that we schedule events in the future keeping in mind important religious and cultural dates.)

So why do we do all this? Well, besides the pure enjoyment of our kids, we can support our PARAs (our biggest expense of the year at $75,000), move forward with our landscaping plans to make the front of our school safer and more aesthetically pleasing, continue to support our teachers, help with the costs of field trips, provide STEM opportunities for our students, and so much more! We were happy to provide our teachers with pizzas last week, as they were at the school from 7 AM to 7 PM teaching our children and then meeting with us parents regarding their progress. And, thank you, to those parents who brought in snacks and beverages right after our busy Fall Festival weekend!

I am so very proud to represent this community. It is you, our families, and our fabulous staff who make Ralston Elementary such a wonderful place.

Please feel free to reach out to me directly with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Sincerely,
Kate Myers
Ralston Elementary PTA President
Myers.k80gmail.com
415-310-0174