In just one month, I earned $10 toward Stevenson Elementary’s shade structure fund via the Escrip dining program. Wow! Just think about what would happen if a mere 100 families participated: $10 x 100 families x 9 school months = $9,000. And $9,000 goes a long way toward some nice, cool shade for our kids to enjoy.

Through Escrip’s dining program, local restaurants contribute a percentage of your food bill to the organization you support — which is, of course, Families For Stevenson!

Click Here to find out more about this great fundraiser.
Here’s the way it works. You register your credit and debit cards on Escrip and indicate up to three organizations you support. Since you’ve probably already registered your grocery cards, this last part is likely done. Then, magically, when you dine at a restaurant that participates in the program, 2.5% of the total bill (the total including your generous tip!) is put in Stevenson’s account. To get an additional 2.5% added to the fund, you answer a simple restaurant review that is emailed to you. The review is quite short and completely painless. So this unique program (again) costs you no extra money, and there are no coupons to clip or codes to memorize.

Everything good has an app these days, and this is no exception. You can download a free app from the iTunes site (search RN Dining) and find restaurants wherever you are that participate in the program.

Do you like sushi? Octopus Japanese Restaurant participates. Does your family prefer Chinese? China Inn Bistro contributes. Mexican? Tequilas is in. Just like restaurants that begin with the letter B — then there is Burbank Bar & Grille or Black Angus. My favorite restaurant, Monte Alban near my office, participates. Lucky Strike, Katsuya, Jillian’s, Tokyo Delve’s, Formosa Café . . . OH MY!

Click Here to find out more about this great fundraiser.

It’s the time of year for numbers. Good or bad, numbers ring as loudly as the bells of the season. How many days until Christmas break? How many hours does the turkey need to cook? How many houses does Santa Claus visit? OK, you get the idea. And speaking of numbers, this year gift cards are among the top-requested presents for the holidays. The National Retail Federation’s recent survey found that holiday shoppers plan to spend nearly $140.00 each on gift cards and that total spending on gift cards is expected to reach $23.63 billion.

Bringing that home, if every family at Stevenson Elementary chose just one $40 gift card from the Shop With Scrip program this holiday season, we would add $500 toward the fund to bring shade to the playground. And that would really help. We are one third of the way into the school year and almost one third of the way to funding the first shade structure. Now that is something we can celebrate.

Another cause for celebration – The Made In The Shade committee has secured a local dermatologist, Dr. Jeff Ashley, as a sponsor for our application to the American Academy of Dermatology’s Shade Structure Program. That’s also terrific news. But there are challenges ahead. The budget crunch has affected corporate funding and we have received a handful rejection letters on our grant proposals to date. We will continue to forge ahead with persistency, sending out more grant applications and identifying more opportunities to bring sun safety education to our families.

And we need more help. Only one in seven families at Stevenson Elementary participate in the Shop With Scrip gift card program. The escrip program, having been in place longer, boasts 56% of families participating, but there is room for improvement. Please help increase these numbers by visiting http://stevensonpirates.net/home/ffs/about-made-in-the-shade. Make sure your family is participating and offer your additional family members, in and out of town, the information they need to register their grocery and credit cards and purchase gift card in our program. It’ll go a long way toward reaching the winning number – 1 – as in the goal to construct our first shade structure in 2010.

Your Made in the Shade Committee would like to present our new service to you.

You can buy gift cards from us and use them like cash at stores you shop at everyday! It’s easy and you get the full cash value that you paid for the card. The best thing is that these companies donate a generous percentage of the value back to Stevenson. The cards are available from retailers you love to shop at everyday for everything like Vons, Staples, Applebees, Jamba Juice, Barnes and Noble and many more. By using this service you are helping us raise the money needed to put permanent shade structures over our kids play areas!

It’s that simple! By using scrip in place of cash or using these cards as gifts for friends and family, you can raise money for our shade with ease. For a detailed list of retailers you can buy scrip cards for, go to shopwithscrip.com!

If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact our coordinator at piratesscrip@gmail.com

eScript is an easy way to earn money for your school while buying your everyday items.

Get groceries that give Back to Schools – sign up for Families for Stevenson’s eScrip Program and start shopping at Vons, Safeway or Pavilions now to earn money for our school!

Important Dates:
August 12 – Program Begins
September 15 – Program Ends September 18 – Program Redemption Begins and Receipt Prints Start
October 9 – Receipt Prints End
October 13 – Program Redemption Ends

Buy any of over 2,000 participating items with your Club Card from August 12 – September 15 and 10% of the price will go to Families For Stevenson Booster Assoc! To find participating items, simply look for the yellow School Bus tags throughout the store, pick up the in-store flyer or look online.

Back-to-school affects the whole family, but it’s especially busy for mom. Packing lunches, doing extra laundry, keeping the house clean and disinfected, making healthy dinners. All takes effort and planning. We’re here to help you make the grade. Stock up on these 10% participating brands to maintain a healthier home and student body, this year!

2009 PARTICIPATING BUSINESSES

To find out more about this special eScrip promotion, cick here visit their website.

Renew your membership!

Join eScrip or RENEW your eScrip registration and make easy money!
Join online at www.escrip.com (a secure website) and register your Von’s, Pavillions, Macy’s, MasterCard, Visa and Debit cards. eScrip donates money to Stevenson every time you make a purchase! Tell your friends and families to do it too! You can register all of their cards with your eScrip account too. It’s so easy!
Stevenson’s eScrip school ID is: 141523068

Already signed up? Renew your Vons and Pavilions Club Card with eScrip!
Although your qualified purchases are currently earning rebates for your group, your club card will become inactive with eScrip on November 1, 2009 unless you renew your commitment now. Click on the Renew Now button on the eScrip home page.

Proceeds from eScrip will benefit FFS’s “Made in the Shade” Sun Protection Program.

Wow, wasn’t Stevenson Rocks great fun? That kind of organization, involvement and attendance is incredible and a tribute to our community and school. And a special word of gratitude to everyone who stopped by the Sun Safety committee’s booth to find out more this effort and how to get involved.

The Sun Safety committee is working at full steam to accomplish the goal of building outdoor shade improvements at our school and needs participation from each family and extended family of Stevenson pupils, staff and alumni to guarantee success. With the primary focus of realizing the first shade installation on the playground by the beginning of the school year in August 2010, it is important to increase eScrip registration to include all Stevenson families right away. eScrip is the primary source of funding for this endeavor. In addition to the monies raised through eScrip (including Von’s & Macy’s program contributions) and Albertson’s and Ralph’s community fund raising programs, the committee is also researching and writing for grants and corporate donations to add to the monies needed. And soon, a program from GLscrip will be added to the mix. The first structure is estimated to cost $27,000 and to date we have raised $5,000.

Remember that signing up for these programs costs you nothing and sign up is safe and secure. By registering your loyalty cards to these stores, a percentage of your purchases will be earmarked for R.L. Stevenson Elementary and will go directly into this fund.
You can either give your loyalty card numbers directly to any committee member (in fact, you can email them to Michelle Thornsberry right now (shandy_michelle@yahoo.com) who will register for you or you can go online and register your own information in about 10 minutes. Find easy instructions at www.StevensonPirates.net/madeintheshade. Even if you have registered at some time in the past, it is worth taking a moment to log on and make sure your information is up-to-date and complete. Then, ask your extended family to register. The programs require reregistration yearly, so it’s worth checking it out right now to be sure that community monies that can be going into the school are not languishing untouched!

With that and this last edition of the Stevenson Pirates News, be sure to keep your hats on, sunscreen handy and enjoy the summer safely.

It’s this time of year where we can really appreciate living in Southern California. Friends and relatives are just starting to enjoy spring, but here in Burbank we are regularly hitting temperatures in the 80s and enjoying bright, sunny days. Instead of keeping track of jackets for school, we are packing extra water and juice to keep hydrated. And of course, it’s also the time to renew our dedication to safe sun practices and to the “Made in the Shade” eScrip drive.

In 2008, Families For Stevenson organized the “Made In The Shade” Committee to research playground shade structures and focus on the fundraising required to make shady play areas a reality at Stevenson. Although it will take another year or so to realize this goal, the value of this project is far-reaching. The Skin Cancer Foundation estimates that 80% of lifetime sun exposure occurs during childhood — and that just one blistering sunburn can double the risk of getting melanoma later in life. So along with regular safe sun practices, join FFS in the effort to create a safer school environment.

The eScrip program is a primary source of funding for the planned structures. EScrip lets parents, teachers, neighbors and relatives earn money for the shade fund by registering grocery club cards, credit cards, select retailer cards and even debit/ATM cards in the program. Retailers then contribute a percentage of the money spent on those cards directly to the designated efforts. And best of all, it doesn’t cost the cardholder anything additional.

Grocery loyalty programs at Vons, Pavilions and other Safeway stores all can be registered to start earning money today. Other merchants here in Burbank and the surrounding areas that participate include Macys (via Macy’s credit cards) and restaurants like Tequilas, Santa Fe Cafe, Priscilla’s, Burbank Bar & Grille and more through the use of registered credit cards used at these locations. There’s even an eScrip Online Mall Store that can put money in the fund by shopping at locations like Nordstroms.com, Ebay, Amazon and many, many more.

It’s easy to get and stay involved. You can sign up today and help contribute to these efforts. Then ask friends, neighbors and relatives do the same.

ESCRIP

1. Log on to www.escrip.com
2. Click on “Sign Up – It’s Free”
3. Enter your info.
4. Identify Families For Stevenson (141523068) as the group you want to support.
5. Confirm the school selection.
6. Enter your contact information.
7. Register your Vons card by putting the card number in the appropriate box.
8. On the next screen you can register your Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, ATM & Diners Club.
9. Register your Macys card.
10. Confirm your registration.

ALBERTSONS

1. Log on to www.albertsons.com
2. On the bottom navigation bar, click on ‘In The Community.’
3. On the right navigation bar, click on ‘Community Partners.’
4. If you haven’t visited this site before, it’ll ask for your zip code and then loop you back. Go through steps #2 & #3 again.
5. Enter your card number and telephone number.
6. Click on ‘Sign Me Up.’
7. Click on ‘Find A Partner.’
8. Enter Families For Stevenson – ID # 49001017076.
9. Click on ‘Update Now.’

RALPHS

1. Log on to www.ralphs.com
2. Choose Welcome & create an online account or log on to your existing account.
3. Click on My Account (top right).
4. Select Community Contribution Programs.
5. Find Families for Stevenson – ID # 90972
6. Confirm your selection.
7. Save changes.

Please take a few moments to register today. For additional information contact Michelle Shandy at FFS using the form below.