This year I am overwhelmed with happiness at how many new faces and friends we had helping at this event. I really want and need to thank everyone I can possibly remember and if I forgot anyone I am SUPER SORRY! WOW- I don’t even know where to begin! But I will try and get it out all in one sentence for you- Starting with the “Stevenson Witches”- Maxine, Denise, Jennifer, Kim, Diane, Felicia, Jennifer J, Kavita, Laura, Jessica, Carrie, and Vickie who spent many Weds afternoons planning the event and many hours pulling it all together, to all the ROOM REPS who worked so hard, to the faithful “Grillin’ Dads”, across to the volunteers who “served their Time” at their booth and to the dedicated crew at the Monster Make Over (especially Daniela), to the Cake Walk crew and to the cake bakers (especially Judy), to Games (especially Denise), to Cake Contest (especially Vickie, Geralyn and Emily), to the Boney Bob’s Die-Ner crew (especially Maxine, Kavita and Ms. Lavitt), to the Photo Booth crew (especially Danielle) to Kim and Vinnie for making things happen, to the teachers with all their clever art projects and Jack-o-lanterns, to the readers at story time and Tish for arranging it, to my “pockets ladies and dude”, to Tom Cain for all his awesome work on signs and many other things, to Felicia who did tons of pre-work, to Carrie for “M-Cing” all night among the other things she did, to Jennifer Jesperson for her decorating and leading the decorating crew, to the many other people who donated their time to make things-Jessica, Melissa, Tina, RRs, and to the people who came and help set-up (especially George, Scott, David, and Rick), right down to the people who quietly stayed after and took down that maze and to the not so quiet (in a good way) people who cleaned up, De for taking fantastic candid photo shots, and not to forget the STUDENTS from Jordan and Burroughs (thanks Jennifer Auproux for recruiting most of them!), to Nancy for picking up the glow sticks, to Sandi for bringing the bean bag game, to all the people who brought us coolers or equipment to borrow, to Stephanie, to Renee, to Sharon, to Sheyanne, to Shannon, to Denise Rayl, to Carlotta, to Andy, to Harley, and to the very important Photographers Noel and Ali Aragon with Peace 4 ART who gave us those AWESOME photographs, and Create-A-Bear – I’d like to say THANK YOU!!! Oh wait! I forgot a lot more! To Portos for donating an AWESOME cake and Bernadette for picking it up, to the FIREMAN who delivered the pumpkins and purchased them, To Maxine’s “mysterious city employee friend” who got the fireman to deliver the pumpkins, to the wonderful array of people who donated gift cards, donated their time, donated items or money (special thanks to Lana), to my mom who made the “Pocket lady” costume, to Lowes and Smart and Final for giving us product at a discount, to Albertsons for donating product, to Cinema Vehicles for donating the big light and my husband Tom for picking them up, to Glenn Corbett at- AT POWER for giving us deal on lights and Jessica who arranged those lights, to Ralph’s for donating $20.00 and Sandy who got it for us, to the Missionaries (very cute boys) that came and set up the maze and of course Vinnie who lead them, to Jennifer Sprow who did the final touches on the maze and Jacqueline, to our “runners” of the event who went many times picking up needed items, to Earl who picked up The BBQ and Hay, to Westminster Presbyterian who loaned us the BBQ, to Jennifer and George for getting us the tables and picking them up, to Debbie for sorting books even when she was sick, to her helpers and to the people who donated all those books, to the office staff for putting up with all the clutter and craziness, to Miss Ginnetti and Patricia for counting all that money all night long, to Edgar and Oscar for cleaning all the craziness up, to our pizza man Jim for making sure the pizza was delivered all night long, and of course the rest of the pizza “slingers”, to the people who I so rudely but innocently have momentarily forgotten, THANK YOU!!! WOW- That felt like an OSCAR speech! But, where’s my “OSCAR”? (Wink*Wink) It takes a lot of people to make spectacular things happen and I think this year’s Boo Bash was Spectacular! I hope you all felt the same way and enjoyed yourselves! Last year we only had maybe 10 people and a few husbands helping (not including the cleanup crew). This year I counted over 90 people who helped us in some way! We just wanted to double the money we brought in last year which was only $1,600.00 (and we were happy with that)! But, this year we didn’t double it, we tripled it!!! We made $4,805.55. That’s Spootacular! Now we all just have to cool down relax and then we can get to work on the STEVENSON ROCKS! YIKES! Believe me it will be here before we know it!
~Tiffany Bakas – Chairperson for Boo Bash!

It just gets better and better!

If you were one of the many that attended this year’s Boo Bash you know exactly what I am talking about. What an amazing turnout we had! The kids, parents, teachers and staff were all having a blast and can’t stop talking about how great the Boo Bash was.
Unfortunately I don’t have enough space here to thank every single person individually that played a role in making the Boo Bash the success it was! However, I would like to give giant props out to Tiffany Bakas and her amazing committee (you all know who you are!), the room reps, the volunteers, our amazing photographers, the dads who helped out with the BBQ and Edgar (our evening custodian). This event would not have been a success without you all!

R.L. Stevenson Elementary School and the Burbank Unified School District are participants in “The Great Southern California ShakeOut which will take place on November 13th. For additional information on this event please visit www.shakeout.org.

Ask yourself… Do you like the way cotton feels on your skin or the way a nice cap shades you from the sun? Well, if your answer is yes to either or both of them we have a solution for you – Pirate Gear! Yes, we have new Pirate Gear on board now… t-shirts, ringers, jersey shirts, hoodies, and caps (which the students will be allowed to wear to school here at Stevenson). As you all know, Fridays are “Spirit Days” here at Stevenson and what better way to have them wear school colors then to purchase official Stevenson Pirate Gear! Keep your eyes out for Pirate Gear information and price sheets in your child’s folder or contact me directly if you want a form now.

This month’s PTA/FFS meeting is November 13th @ 7pm – we look forward to seeing you there!
Please continue to let me know how we can constantly improve your experiences and your child’s experiences here at Stevenson. And remember, if you see me around town or campus, feel free to stop by to chat and/or introduce yourself.

Cheers, Rick Wilson

Dear Stevenson families,

In addition to my duties as FFS President and PTA Corresponding Secretary, I have also been asked to deliver the “Inspiration” at each meeting. I’ve always collected quotes, so this isn’t too difficult a task for me, but this month I found myself struggling a bit. Given the current state of our nation’s economy, it’s hard to find many quotes that are inspirational without sounding cheesy or trite. Until I came across this one by Carol Pearson:

Focusing our attention – daily and hourly – not on what is wrong, but on what we love and value, allows us to participate in the birth of a better future, ushered in by the choices we make each and every day.

As parents and care-givers, we are shaping the future of this world and it is up to us to insure that it is a better future. Each day we have a choice to make – let the news of the day get us down OR focus our attention on what we love and value. We can allow fear and anxiety to consume every moment, OR we can take a few moments to see the wonder and hope that shines in the eyes of our child. We can choose to accept state budget cuts, OR we can choose to raise the money our school needs to offer dance and arts instruction. No, I can’t solve Wall Street’s woes with a cheesy, inspirational quote, but I can help my child learn how to dance, draw, sculpt, and sing. So can you. And there’s nothing trite about that.

~ Carrie Brown

RED RIBBON WEEK was lots of fun, with the kick-off held at Johnny Carson park where hundreds of kids joined our Burbank Police in a bike ride for the cause.

Congratulations on making a drug-free commitment!

Walk Your Child to School Day was great fun! Special thanks to the organizers and the
Burbank Fire Department!!!