Archive: Around Town

Last summer the Lansing Parent teacher Student Organization (PTSO) sponsored Kindergarten Community Nights every Wednesday.  The idea was for kids who would be starting Kindergarten in the Fall to get to know each other and to be comfortable on the school playground and about going to school.  It also gave parents a chance to get to know each other.  That worked so well that organizer Margaret Shackell-Dowell is expanding the program this year to include all elementary grades.

"No one will be turned away," she says.  "If you're a second grader and you come on a first grade night you'll still be welcome.  The idea is to build up friends and community over the summer, and build up the school as a fun and good place."

She is calling the program 'Elementary School Meet Me This Summer!'  On the first Mondays of July and August kids entering first grade will meet.  Second graders will meet on the second Mondays, and so on through fourth grade.

She has scheduled five additional 'Meet Mes' at the Hangar Theatre's KidStuff shows and at the Lansing Harbor Festival.  Lansing kids will be encouraged to see 'Snow White,' 'Busytown,' 'Paddington,' and the 'Mystery of Edwin Drood' together.  Shackell-Dowell will encourage parents to buy tickets through her in order to take advantage of group ticket rates that she says brings the ticket price per show down to $2.50.  "A lot of people go, but wouldn't it be fun if we all met on the same day," she says.

The Kindergarten 'Meet Mes' were so successful last year that they are being repeated this summer, every Wednesday from 6pm to 7:30pm, will Kelly Bell organizing the play sessions.  They will begin on June 24th and go through the summer.

"Last year some Kindergarten teachers showed up," says Shackell-Dowell, who has three children in Kindergarten, 2nd and 10th grades this year.  "The kids were delighted to get to see their teacher before school started.  It made that better for them."

New to the community last year, Shackell-Dowell organized a 'Pack a Backpack' drive to get donations of backpacks and school supplies for students whose families are in need.  The drop-off point was the school parking lot on Harbor Festival day, and the drive yielded 2,342 items including 11 new and 4 'gently used' backpacks, 25 binders25 packages of colored pencils, 60 packages of crayons, 104 folders, 99 glue sticks, 41 packages of loose leaf paper,31 mechanical pencils, 22 pencil cases, 831 pencils, 418 pens, 132 spiral notebooks, and 44 packages of markers.  Her group of volunteers also collected $187 in cash to buy items that they did not receive. 

This year they are consulting parents before the drive to learn what items are needed and to alert parents that their kids may be eligible to receive a backpack.  She is talking about coordinating the drive with the Harbor Festival 'Meet Me' this summer.  The festival is scheduled for August 15th at Myers Park, and includes a day of music, food, and activities with a very active kids' pavilion.  She is still working out locations and details of this 'Meet Me' and says she will let parents know when they attend earlier ones.

"Kids will meet up with their friends right before they go back to school," She says.  They'll also think about that day as the day they drop off their backpack supplies."

----
v5i23