Colonial Days Cleanup - Strike Team to the Rescue!

Colonial Days is a special event and it is a big hit with the kids. To tell you the truth, I think the adult volunteers like it too! This year's event was as good as ever thanks to outstanding planning and execution by Wendy Meyer - wife of Strike Team member Paul Meyer.

The Strike Team helped a bit with setup. Paul Meyer, Everett Blanton, John Isaza did a great job.

Cleanup proved to be a daunting task. I think if we never see sawdust again, it will be too soon! Mark Miller, Sam Hooper, Rob Lebby, Paul Meyer and Danny Carey spent a ton of time and effort cleaning up sawdust and packing the storage shed. I am not sure how they did it but Danny and Sam fit everything in the shed! Sort of a circus clown car in reverse. They kept claiming that there was no more room but somehow, some way, they kept it going.

Note to 2008 planners - cut the sawdust order by 2/3rds!

Great job guys!

Boo Blast 2007 - The Most Successful Ever!

Congratulations go to our PTA President & Boo Blast Co-Chair Lynn Gregory as well as her teammate & Co-Chair Scott Spinello for a tremendous Boo Blast! Despite rescheduling due to fires and under the threat of rain, they pulled off a record event. According to preliminary numbers, they raised more money than any previous Boo Blasts by almost double. Truly a tremendous effort by these two dedicated volunteers.

Lynn, of course, is the inspiration behind the Strike Team - she conceived of the idea and was the driving force behind its development. Scott, in addition to being Co-Chair and an instrumental part of this great event is also a Strike Team dad.

The Strike Team played an important role in support of Boo Blast. A number of dads showed up to help setup the event. Jose Vergara, Mike Gilles and Rob Lebby (left) came early to help setup booths. Nick Pivaroff, Allan Rosen, Mike Gilles and Rob Smith (right) worked an assembly line in the fish booth.

They put together a lot of fish - probably 1 1/2 hours worth of serious effort! This booth is the most popular booth at the Boo Blast so it was well worth it! Great job guys - your efforts help make this event a great success. One of the comments I heard before lunch was "we are so far ahead of schedule..."

After a great event and a long day came the tear down. A huge contribution by Strike Team dads Paul Meyer (with his wife Wendy too), Earle Wellsfry (with his wife Laura), Neil Detweiler (with ubiquitous wife Shelly plus son's Ian and Lance) Kirk Andrews and Phil McManus all delivered heroic efforts in tearing down the booths. Many hands made light work.

This is why the Strike Team works. It is the volunteers who give of themselves at Drop Off, Haunted House setup and tear down, Boo Blast and Colonial Days that makes this successful. Thank you all for your continued efforts. We are making a difference. Well done, men, well done.

Operation: Drop Off

Operation: Drop Off in Action!
At the top, Paul Meyer directs traffic. In the middle
Jose Vergara helps a young student out of her car and
I have no idea what Horst Noppenberger is doing!

Boo Blast Silent Auction Stuff - Baskets & Gift Certificates

Boo Blast is upon us and we wanted you to preview the Silent Auction items - both Baskets and Gift Certificates! There is some great stuff here - the generosity is overwhelming. So dig deep!

The baskets are divided in to three groups, Orange Bows, Black Bows and Yellow Bows. Click each item to view the details:

Baskets -

• Orange Bows
• Black Bows
• Yellow Bows
• Gift Certificates

See you there!

Boo Blast Rescheduled!

Due to the fires and subsequent air quality, the school district canceled all outdoor activities. It has been reschedule for this Friday, November 9th.

We have a number of dad's scheduled but we welcome more volunteers for setup starting at 8:30 a.m. Tear down is around 7:30 p.m. if you are available too!

See you there!

Coming up next, Colonial Days!

A Call to Action: Boo Blast Volunteers Needed

Calling all Strike Team members:

Here is the call for volunteers for Boo Blast. Boo Blast is the annual Halloween Carnival/PTA Fundraiser open to the whole city - not just El Morro. Basically the needs are in two areas - Setup and Tear Down.

Setup begins around 8:30 am on Friday (thats right, this Friday!) and we could use a lot of help. Here are some of the Setup tasks:

• Work with the Electrician stringing lights on the booths*
• Place tables and chairs in booths
• Hanging sponsor banners
• Put games in booths
• Make a graveyard
• GENERAL MAN POWER

*The electrician won't be coming until 10:00 but we have plenty of things to do until then.

We people who can commit to 2-4 hours in the morning. The plan is to finish by noon. After all, many hands make light work! You will not need to bring anything.

The Tear Down responsibilities are minimal as the rides are taken down by the vendors and much of the cleanup is done by the janitorial crew. Tear Down, I believe, will begin around 7:00 or 8:00 pm and does not last too long.

This is the big fundraiser for the PTA so lets get out there and show them that the El Morro Dads Strike Team is serious about their support! There is a benefit to volunteering early this year...preferred parking! That is right, no bus!

Let me know ASAP.

Haunted House Construction Team

In addition to putting on Family Fun Events, the true purpose of the Strike Team is to support our school by matching willing volunteer dads with needed volunteer opportunities.

When I put out the request for Strike Team members to help with the assembly of the Haunted House we had a great response - a lot of you stepped up. Well the job has been completed and the word from the front line is:

"They were awesome!"

Special thanks go to:

• Joe Becker
• Dave Shipp
• David LaMontagne
• Steve Keeling
• Ian Cairns

Well done guys. Thanks for stepping up and doing a great job.

Movie Night - A Huge Success!

Movie Night, by all accounts, was a huge success. We had around 55 families totaling 200 people! This was a much bigger turnout than we ever conceived. We started with Looney Toons cartoons, gave away 25 door prizes and then watched the feature presentation which was awesome thanks to El Morro's new video system.

Major kudos to the Movie Night team led by Joe Becker along with Danny Carey and Mark Miller - the event went very smoothly and came in under budget. A big thanks to others that contributed including Jose Vergara, Warren Hutcherson, Mark Major & Neal Detweiler - not to forget Shelley Detweiler and Debra Miller who pitched in as well.

"This is one of the best ideas ever..."
Cheri David, 1st Grade Teacher

We are tasked with putting on 3 "Family Fun Events." With the success of Movie Night, we may want to do more. Think about other events that you would like to see. One idea is to have an overnight camp-out at the school. With Boo Blast, Colonial Days, Winter Break & Ski Week, we will not, likely, have our next event until March or April. Our planning meeting will likely be in January, maybe December.

"The STRIKE TEAM concept is brilliant..."
Dr. Robert Fraisse, Superintendant LBUSD

This Strike Team concept is working better than anyone imagined. Operation: Drop Off has made a huge difference. When I asked for electricians, we had 4 volunteers. When I asked for help building the Haunted House we had 8 responses. I cannot tell you how many positive responses we are getting from the District, the School and the Parents. Keep up the good work!

The STRIKE TEAM ROCKS!!!
Julie Torbensen, Drop Off Mom

Boo Blast is in two weeks, October 26th. We will be looking for volunteers. I will issue specific requests on this shortly. Initially, the big need is for setup and tear down. Mark your schedule.

Lastly, we now offer Strike Team Gear - T-Shirts, Hats, Mugs, Boxer Shorts - a lot of stuff. All profits from each sale goes directly to the PTA. You can access the store from the blog.

Again, great job everybody!

Movie Night

All - Movie Night is upon us. This is our first Family Fun Event and we want as many Strike Team members as possible. Bring the whole family! Friday night, be there!

Arrive before 6:30 - we will need some help throughout the evening so jump in.

Operation: Drop Off - Mission Accomplished!

We did it! We have accomplished our goal to fully staff Operation: Drop Off! Thanks to all for stepping up. For those who could not take on this task, no worries, there will be plenty of opportunities for everyone to contribute this year. This was an ambitious initiative and we exceeded our goals.

When notified that we had met our staffing goals, Principal Duddy responded:

"Having the Dad's Strike team out there in the morning gives me peace of mind that I can attend to other more important business in the morning that directly affects teaching and student learning. You don't know how much I appreciate the Dads Strike Team! Thank You!"

This is our group, gentlemen, and it is up to us to make it something great. Many dads stepped up and answered the call for an electrician. Now we have staffed the drop off. We are doing great and I have to tell you, the school is blown away.

Way to go guys! See the team lineup here.

Operation: Drop Off - Update

Operation: Drop Off is a HUGE success. There is no backup of cars on PCH, the parents are happy and the school is thrilled. This is a great program - simple as can be - that is yielding great results. Thanks to Mark Buckland for coming up with the idea.

Since my email this morning, we have filled all of the spots on Monday and are starting to build a list of alternates. This leaves us wide open on Wednesday - see the Volunteer Schedule here.

So check your schedules and let's get Wednesday taken care of and be done with it! Let me know.

A Call to Action - Operation: Drop Off

All - We need volunteers to help manage the morning drop off at El Morro School. This is our first call for volunteers - this one requires a lot of bodies but not a lot of time. Right now the only person supervising the drop off area is Chris Duddy. He does a fine job but is often needed for meetings. We need to bring order to the chaos. Read about the problem on the link to the right or click here for Operation: Drop Off.

I did this last Friday and it was both needed and fun. We need a manager (Tom Kemp for now) and a number of dads to support the operation. The time you are needed is from 7:40 am to 8:00 am - 20 minutes - thats all.

The drop off rules, as I understand them, can be found here. I embellished a little bit.

Until we get this handled, if you are driving your kid to school, consider going a bit early and helping out - 3 dads helping out is optimum. Also, if your work takes you by the school during drop off time, drop in to see if you can help.

Read Operation: Drop Off and let me know when you can help!

Calling all El Morro Dad's

Welcome to the Blog for the El Morro Dad's Strike Team! The Strike Team is being formed now to plan and execute Family Fun Nights for the El Morro Families. We will have 3 (maybe 4) events. This is an opportunity for all Dad's to contribute their time and effort towards discrete events when sitting on a committee requires too much time and effort. We also plan to develop and army of volunteers to provide support at El Morro Events sponsored by the PTA, SchoolPower or the School itself.

The first meeting is Tuesday, September 18th at 7:00 PM. The meeting will be held at 1141 Marine Drive - this is Crescent Bay in North Laguna.

Contact me at tkemp@cox.net or 949.422.6320.

Shoot me an email or give me a call!

Tom Kemp