PTA Programs: Ways to Help!
How to Get Involved
Volunteers make many enriching, worthwhile and just plain fun experiences available to our children. With your support, teachers and staff are able to provide the best educational experience to Forest Edge students.
There are so many way that you can make a difference. Click here for a complete list of volunteer opportunities. For a sign-up form in English, click here. For a Spanish version, click here.
Many of the PTA’s bigger programs (such as the Science Fair, Reflections art program, Fundraisers and Family Events) need volunteers for a wide variety of activities. These might include creating posters or decorating the school, brainstorming ideas, and helping out the evening of the event. Let us know what you might be interested in doing!
Here’s just a sampling of ways to help.
Reflections Contest. This Committee works from September through December to promote and coordinate the National PTA Reflections contest. This competition includes writing, visual arts and music categories.
Art Room Helpers. Volunteers help with organizing materials and visual aids to be used during art classes and assist children and the art teacher as needed during class sessions. Parents help on an as-need basis, generally during school hours, throughout the year.
Cultural Arts. This committee selects and coordinates with outside vendors and performers who provide diverse musical, dramatic and educational student assemblies. This committee also coordinates the annual fourth grade Colonial Day.
Classroom and ESOL Volunteers. Most teachers in K-3 schedule parent volunteers to work with children in small groups and/or assist with photocopying and other administrative support. Our English Speakers of Other Language (ESOL) teachers also need volunteers to help with these tasks and to work one-on-one with children.
Clinic, Office & Library Support Volunteers. Our nurse needs coverage in the clinic during her lunch break. (She always remains in the building to dispense medications or handle incidents requiring more than a Band-Aid or ice pack!) Office volunteers might assist on the phones or with administrative duties. And Forest Edge’s librarian, Mrs. Cannon, needs help, particularly in the afternoon, shelving books.
Volunteers to Work at Home. The PTA hosts two major family events each year -- the Back-to-School picnic in the fall and the Family Fun Fair & Silent Auction in the spring. A large committee of volunteers is required to make these events successful.
Sally Foster Fundraiser. Sales of Sally Foster gift wrap is a major PTA fundraiser which happens early in the school year. Volunteers who are available during the school day are needed to help process orders and organize them when they arrive.
Parents Teach Art (PTArt). This hugely popular program brings monthly art lessons and projects to each Forest Edge classroom. No art knowledge is necessary; all information and supplies are provided. Volunteers are needed to teach the one-hour monthly lessons, generally to their own children’s classes.
Hospitality Volunteers are needed several times throughout the year (generally, August and May) to prepare a dish for a staff luncheon or breakfast. Preparation is done at home. If you’re not a cook, perhaps you’d be willing to help solicit food donations from local businesses; we have many generous local companies who have helped us in the past.
PTA Newsletter (Edgewise). The PTA regularly publishes a newsletter that shares information about school and PTA events, PTA activities and decisions. The newsletter can be written and prepared at home. Photocopying happens in-school.
Student Directory. In the first months of the school year, the Forest Edge PTA publishes a student directory. The PTA distributes a free copy to the eldest child in each family. Volunteers are needed to assist with inputting contact information, proofreading, and readying the directories for annual distribution. Most of this effort takes place at home.
Volunteer Procedures
Sign In & Out All visitors and volunteers are required to sign in and out of the school using the volunteer notebook. We like to track our volunteer hours so please mark down your total in the notebook at the front desk.
While On School Property While on school property, be sure to wear your Forest Edge visitor or volunteer sticker at all times. No smoking is permitted inside or outside.
Photocopying There is a workroom located on each floor. Photocopiers are located in the workrooms and the main office. When you are photocopying, always yield to school personnel.