Each year, the Bell PTSA organizes a holiday gift drive during the months of November and December. We work closely with the school counselor to gather wish lists from Bell students whose families need help getting gifts for their children. We then share these wish lists with our community and ask members to purchase items from the lists, wrap the gift(s), and drop the item(s) off at Bell. Please sign-up to donate a gift(s), so we can help ensure that every child at Bell has a holiday to remember. 

Mrs. Davies class wins the pizza party! 

Her classroom donated 51 lbs of candy. Neil Smiles will be hosting a pizza party for her classroom. Additionally, Neil Smiles will donate $1 to Bell PTSA for every pound of candy donated. 

All the candy will be donated to Birthday Dreams, a local non-profit that helps provide birthday parties to children experiencing homelessness. Thank you for participating!

We had so many wonderful entries for the pumpkin decorating contest. The winners were selected via a raffle (to keep the contest as equitable as possible). 

And the winners are...

Aura Gold (Kindergarten, Lazoritz)

Weiwei Pepper (1st, Olsen)

Buck Venters (2nd, Rasor)

James Herzberg (3rd, Magnani)

Alex Luther (4th, Holzer/Clark)

Dmitry Leonov-Vendrovskiy (5th, Nickels)

The winners were announced during Bell's morning announcements on Monday, November 1st. Each winner received a gift card to Barnes and Noble to pick up something fun to read.

The winner's pumpkins are below (in the order listed). The video below includes all entries. 

Did you know the PTSA's Executive Board has term limits? Elected officers are expected to be in their position for no less than 1 year, and they cannot serve more than 2 consecutive years in the same role.

• The President, Brena Gattuccio, is in her second year. 
• The Treasurer, Leslie Victor, is in her second year.
• The Secretary, Jennifer Venters, is in her second year.

Given this, we need to find some new folks to step into board positions next year. This is precisely what the Nominating Committee does. They talk to community members and work to find nominees for next year's board. The PTSA's work is vital! We need to keep the momentum going by ensuring we have a board for next year.

We need two more PTSA members to join the committee (three people total). If you are interested in helping to find folks for next year's board, or if you're interested in a board position, please email Brena Gattuccio at president@agbellptsa.org. More information about each position can be found on the executive board page.

THANK YOU to all the amazing volunteers who are carving out time to give back to our school. It's so wonderful to see multiple volunteers in our building every day! We still have a number of volunteer spots available to help out with outdoor lunch and lunch recess. As a lunch & recess volunteer you will:

• Hang out with the students while they're eating outside - supervise
• Ensure the outdoor tables are cleaned between each lunch
• Follow the students to recess and help facilitate play - have fun!

more information on this volunteer role 

The PTSA organized and funded the first virtual field trip of the year to Oxbow Farms. Thank you Keri Morgan (Bell PTSA's VP of Student Enrichment) for making this possible. We would love to hear feedback from the students about their experience.

• Parents/ guardians: Please send any feedback your student(s) have (good or bad) to feedback@agbellptsa.org
  
  
• Bell Staff: We would greatly appreciate you taking an opportunity to complete this quick survey, so we can ensure we are bringing the best programs to your classrooms. 

Our food pantry is running low! We are getting ready to make large food packs for our food-insecure families at Bell for the holiday break, and we need to stock up our pantry. While we do have funds in our budget for this program, it is costly to purchase fresh produce and additional food items for 30+ families each week. Therefore, we rely on food donations from the community to run this program. There are multiple ways to help:

• Purchase items from our Pantry Packs wishlist.
• Drop off shelf-stable items at the school.

Visit our Pantry Packs page for more info, and thank you for your support!

Do you want to see composting back in our lunch room? Do you want your children to get the consistent message that sustainability is important?

If so, we need your help. We are looking for 5+ volunteers who are willing to help out in the lunchroom for a few weeks. If you can help, please sign-up (more details in the sign-up).

Classroom Air Purifier Drive
This school year, teachers are approved to have air purifiers in the classrooms to help filter the air and prevent the spread of Covid-19. As we know, these HEPA-filter purifiers can be expensive, so we are looking for one parent leader for each class to donate an air filter unit (or, work with families in your classroom to gather funds to purchase one together). We would also love help procuring a few more for the specialists and other rooms our children frequent. If you can help, please sign-up.

Bell staff - we did our best to only list classrooms who do not have air purifiers. Let us know if you would like to be added or removed from this list. 

The PTSA sent a survey to Bell teachers and staff asking them if they would like a room parent (i.e., a go-to volunteer for their classroom), and if so, how many. For the staff members who indicated they would like a room parent(s), we have created the below sign-up. 

All room parent requests have been fulfilled, except for 5th grade. 

The following teachers are still looking for room parents. 

• Mr. Turnbull (needs 2)
• Mrs. Flowers (needs 2)

The 5th grade room parents would help plan the 5th grade promotion ceremony and possibly support other projects or needs throughout the year. If you're interested, please sign-up.

Do you shop at Fred Meyer? Be sure to sign up for their Community Rewards Program & choose A.G. Bell PTSA as your charity of choice! Every time you shop, a portion of your purchase will go to our school. We currently have 58 households registered with the program and would love to double this number! Click here to learn more and register.

We know a number of Bell families were frustrated and unable to register for the LWSD COVID vaccine clinic this weekend (the clinic had 1,800 doses available and the registration system was struggling to handle the influx of demand). Here are a few additional resources:

• The WA Department of Health has added an option to filter your search by pediatric Pfizer doses and anticipates availability will begin to open up over the next several weeks.
• University of Washington is offering the vaccine and your child can be added to their waitlist by calling the number on their website.
• Seattle Children’s Hospital is expected to begin offering pediatric 5-11 year old doses on November 9th.
• Pharmacies will begin receiving pediatric 5-11 year old doses this month.

Kirkland Health Fair and Community Vaccination Event is this weekend, Saturday, November 6th.  

• Free basic health screening for adults
• Free dental screenings and referrals for adults and children
• Transportation is available to those who need it
• They currently do NOT plan to provide vaccines to 5-11 year olds, but will provide vaccines to children and adults 12+ years old.
  More info: English, Spanish, Portuguese

How to Translate the Newsletter

como traduzir o boletim informativo, cómo traducir el boletín, как перевести информационный бюллетень, 如何翻译时事通讯, Rúhé fānyì shíshì tōngxùn

Alexander Graham Bell PTSA

11212 NE 112th St

Kirkland, WA 98033