A more "non personal" way is to advertise that business in your monthly newsletter. do a "Community Spotlight" section in the newsletter, highlighting all that the business has done for the students and such.
another thought would be to invite them to the event they donated stuff to, or even to open house night. We make sure that we invite these people as part of our volunteer breakfast because in a sense they are volunteering their services and time as well.We also have had classes do thank yous from them. it means alot to the store owners and it gives you pride to see those drawings in their store window.
[ 07-16-2004, 06:16 PM: Message edited by: pals ]
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
I am not sure if this is what you are looking for but we have been trying really hard to be united with the community. We contact local celebrities and business owners to come in and talk about their business/careers. We have local government officials talk with older grades, have local people judge story telling,and be guest readers during the year. We also try to buy local as much as possible. We do community service projects for local agencies like the salvation army, and also our school adopted a local nursing home.We also have all the kids do cards for the local senior citizen meals on wheels program. Some classes go to visit local places like the bank, pizza place, newspaper, etc. There are alot of "little" things that you can do to make a realtionship there.
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
I was wondering if anyone would like to share their ideas on how to better involve their community sponsors in the schools.
We have had a fairly good community involvement as far as donations are concerned, but I would like the PTO to do more than just send out a thank you letter. I'd like to feel like we contact them for more than just a donation.