Tuesday News - March 15, 2011

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All submissions for the Tuesday News should be sent to publicrelations@merriconeag.org by Friday at 3:00 pm.

Click here to view our Google Calendar of Events.

Upcoming Events                                                                                                                                                                            

The Parent Coffee Scheduled for Tuesday, March 15, has been postponed.

7th Grade Play is this Thursday:

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Ye Merriconeag Waldorf School Seventh Grade

presents

The Works of William Shakespeare:

Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night (or What You Will)

a medley of scenes full of romance, tragedy, and laughter

Thursday, March 17 at 11:00 AM and 6:30 PM

in the Community Hall at 57 Desert Road

Admission is Free

Queen of the Sun: If you missed the film, you can see it, March 25 - 27, at The Movies at the Portland Museum of Art. Click here for show times.

Tuition Support Fundraiser and Silent Auction:

Saturday April 2, 6:00 PM, Community Hall
     

Calling All Auction Donations! Merriconeag’s Beach Party and Tuition Support Silent Auction are just a few weeks away on Saturday evening, April 2nd, starting at 6pm in our Community Hall. We’ve already received some great donations from local businesses, our families, and even from our high school students, but we still don’t have yours! If you are planning to make a donation, please fill out the attached donation form and send it to any Merriconeag office or directly to Lynne Espy today! It won’t be listed in the auction catalogue unless we receive it very soon!   Link to auction donation & sponsorship form

Check out the Item of the Week:

Have you seen our Auction Facebook page? New this year – all donated items and services, plus our business sponsors, are featured on our new Auction Facebook page. The photos and descriptions make for great evening reading, so please go online and become of friend of this page so the word will spread! Link to the Auction Facebook page
Come to the Auction! You should have received an invitation by mail this week. We have kept the entry fee low ($25 each or $40 per couple) so that every parent will come. If this fee is preventing you (or a friend) from coming, please give Lynne Espy a call. We want all adults to come (parents, grandparents, alumni parents, past faculty and board members, friends of the school, plus your friends and neighbors), and we can provide discounted tickets if that’s what is needed to get you there! Don’t forget to rsvp so we will have enough delicious appetizers and drinks!
Buy a cash raffle ticket! Five cash raffle tickets were included in your invitation, which we hope you will fill out with your name and phone number and send back with the payment. It is a 25/75 cash raffle, meaning that if you win, you keep 25% of the total proceeds. Last year, the winner took home over $2,000, having just bought only 5 tickets for $100! This large winnings can only happen if many people buy the tickets. Buy one, buy 10, or buy more!
Calling All Auction Volunteers! We will need volunteers to help decorate the Community Hall on Friday, April 1st (starting at 10:30 am) and others to work a shift on the night of the auction. Please contact Stacie Hamilton-Waldron at 846-5269 to let her know how you might be able to help out.
Submitted by Lynne Espy, for the amazing Auction Team

2011 Summer Camps at Merriconeag

Look for more information soon on the Merriconeag website. Registration and medical release forms will be available on line by the end of March. Please contact Christine Sloan, administrator@merriconeag.org with questions.

From the Development Office

2010-11 Annual Appeal Update: 

   Last week, volunteers spent a few hours of their evening calling families who have not yet contributed to the 2010-11 Annual Appeal. We had a lot of fun, thanks to the refreshments and good sense of humor among all, and we were thrilled by your positive response. Most of the parents we reached by phone said they appreciated the reminder, and would be making a donation to the Annual Appeal as soon as possible.

     We have two goals: the first goal is to raise $60,000 for the operating budget. This keeps the school running, pays faculty salaries, provides essential supplies for the arts, music and movement programs, and helps families who require tuition support. The second goal is to reach 100% participation among all current parents. As we seek funding from foundations, a high level of participation demonstrates our community’s commitment to Merriconeag and to Waldorf education. Please remember that any size gift counts, and your one gift counts toward all of your children’s classes. Please help your child’s class get to 100% participation!

     My offer still stands: the first class to reach 100% participation will receive a decadent chocolate dessert, made by Lynne Espy. Last year, it was the 8th grade – who will get it this year?

     These classes have reached 50% participation - let’s get them to 100%!
• 2nd Grade: 72%
• EC (Kristina Farm Morrill’s class): 71%
• 7th Grade: 70%
• 4th Grade: 69%
• 1st Grade: 67%
• 5th Grade: 67%
• High School: 60%
• 6th Grade: 54%
• 8th Grade: 53%
• 3rd Grade: 50%
• EC (Bridget Jeffer’s class): 50%

     Please make a donation to the Annual Appeal today by submitting a check to the office (remittance envelopes available), going to our website and making an online donation, or calling us about a stock gift. If your employer matches your charitable gifts, please let us know so we can stretch your gift even further.

     As a community, we are enormously indebted to every family who chooses to make a donation to the Annual Appeal. If you have questions about the Annual Appeal, click here.

In gratitude, Lynne Espy (developmentcoordinator@merriconeag.org, 865-3900 Ext. 116)

School Community Updates

SEVENTEEN SEEDS:
     Available NOW! at all three MWS offices, as well as this Thursday evening at the 7th Grade Play and next week in the parking lot. The 7th Grade has carefully chosen a variety of vegetable and flower seeds (seventeen varieties in all, organic where possible), which they are selling in a bundled pack for $25. Fedco has given us an incredible deal, allowing us to raise money and while also passing along on some savings to you. The varieties in the bundled pack are: Bush Bean, Sugar Snap Pea, Slicing Cucumber, Zucchini, Delicata Squash, Pumpkin, Carrot, Radish, Spinach, Lettuce Mix, Greens Mix, Chard, Kale, Cosmos, Nasturtium, Sunflower, and Zinnia. CHECKS ONLY PLEASE, and should be made out to MWS (7th grade seeds in the memo line). Thank you for your patronage! Submitted by Lucy Ahearne

Lowell Monke Visits with Faculty and Students: Lowell Monke, Professor of Education at Wittenberg University, spent a full day the high school last Thursday. He met with faculty and students and visited classes.

     Professor Monke commented that he visits hundreds of schools all over the country and that he sees Waldorf Schools as the brightest beacon of hope for our children and the only schools that he knows of that are committed to developing "inner strengths and capacities".

     When Lowell joined the full Faculty Meeting late Thursday afternoon he shared the following: "If I took any of the students out of your high school, who participated in the forum today, and put them in my education course at Wittenberg, they would improve the quality of my class."

Lobster Dinner Fundraiser is a success:

Friday evening, 11 March, the lobster dinner fund-raiser for the Model UN participation in conferences at High Mowing School and Dartmouth College was a great success. The dinner, accompanied by music by the Squashin’ Gourds and various MWHS faculty, was finished off with a rousing contra dance with music by the New Leaf music ensemble (The Colson family plus), with Dave Colson calling. It was a fun evening, and over $750 was raised for the program! Special thanks to the Pierces for their music, the Colsons for donating the salad and potatoes (and the music), to Eva McVicar, Rosemary Burwell, Michael Fenderson and Régine Whittlesey for their super help throughout the evening, and to Larry Anderson for procuring, cooking, serving and cleaning up after all the lobsters! David Whittlesey

Energy Analysis and Transportation Study at Merriconeag: As part of a graduate school project in sustainability, MWS parent Alicia Heyburn is conducting an energy analysis and transportation study of Merriconeag's Freeport campus.

     This will include collaboration with administration and the Buildings and Grounds Committee to assess how much energy each building is using, and making recommendations for improving efficiency through use, insulation and fuel sources.

     For the transportation study she will count cars entering and leaving campus for a morning, noon and afternoon in early April. Erik West, an MWS parent who works for the Maine Carpool/Vanpool program, GO MAINE, will assist with mapping and suggestions to expand sustainable transportation options.

     If you have questions or would like to assist with the study please contact Alicia at aheyburn@hotmail.com.

Please check the Lost & Found in the upper and lower buildings on the Grade School Campus. After conferences (March 24 and 25) all unclaimed items will be donated to the Clothes Tree Thrift Shop in Freeport.

Alumni News

Sam Tarling is a National Champion! Sam Tarling, a sophomore skiing for Dartmouth College, won the men's 10 kilometer Nordic freestyle race Wednesday, March 9, on the opening day of the NCAA skiing championships at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont. Sam is a "graduate" of Merriconeag's 8th Grade Class of 2005 and is the son of Merriconeag High School's Nordic Coach, John Tarling.

To read the article in the Thursday, March 10 issue of the Portland Press Herald, click here.

Read (Listen to or Watch) This

Social Animal and Higher Education
On February 25, 2011 New York Times Op-Ed columnist, PBS NewsHour and NPR All Things Considered political analyst, David Brooks gave his views on higher education in front of an audience at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.

You can listen to his talk on MPBN's Speaking in Maine at the link above.

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