As y'all will learn with time - I always have something to say about everything!
Anyways, we've done Yahoo/BooHoo at our school since we opened our doors(3 years ago). This past August was a blast. We have our Hospitality Chair get donated yummmies from Board Members(we had a huge abundance) and then we put out baskets of party horns for those who were the yahooers and baskets of tissue and cute sayings tied to them for our BooHooers. We had a great attendance, and everyone loved it. It's always a great way to start off the school year. And the best thing is - the parents are still in the building if their babies need them that first day. Myself, I have a 1st and 3rd grader this year - they'd prefer me to be way out of the building!
As a PTA or PTO it's important to establish that first event in a positive light. The parents were touched that they had support on the first day back to school. The staff was happy to have goodies on their first day and us volunteers love to see it all work out positively. It's a win-win situation!
We had our first Tea and Tissue Boo Hoo Breakfast. We only had about 10 parents attend, but of that 10, we had 9 sign up to volunteer during the year. There were some tears, so we felt good about doing it. One of the parents is a God Send. 3rd week of school and she already has volunteered more than 20 hours. We got our money's worth!!!
We had our first Boo-hoo this year, and while response wasn't overwhelming, we were glad we had it. The parents who did come really needed it, and they were very appreciative for the chance to meet people. We sent a notice home in the packets the kids get with their teacher for the coming year and the list of supplies they'd need and asked them to RSVP. We also stationed one of us outside to ask anyone who'd like to join us to come.
The parents who needed it most were those who had just moved into town, and knew NOBODY. The "newbies" were very happy to meet people and have a chance to be brought into the fold. Our town tends to be somewhat standoffish, and had these parents not had this forum to meet people, I can imagine they'd have been relegated to the outer fringes. It was a nice bonus for them to meet people who lived close by and find that there were playmates for their kids right around the corner!
For next year we're thinking we'll have a "Welcome Wagon" packet for those who are new to town, with things like a town map, list of local grocery stores, vernacular of our school they might find handy and things like the Cub Scout leaders' names and numbers.
This was our 3rd year and our turnout wasn't too good. It was disappointing. May have to do something a little different to shake things up next year. We didn't have anyone down at the kindergarten classrooms to coax those parents to the cafeteria so that may be something we need to do next time. May be time for a name change too. I had a couple people tell me they thought it was only for kindergarten parents(even though EVERYTHING said it was for everyone).The biggest disappointment was the lack of board members present. That's right-there were only two of us there!
We had our Boo Hoo Breakfast yesterday (it was a great success) and it made me wonder how everyone else's turned out. This was our first, but we plan on repeating it each year.
The first thing I did was get a Polaroid pic of each Kinder with his/her parents. I taped that to the back of a piece of cardstock, on the front of which I'd mounted one of the poems I found here on the PTO website. When it was time to begin, we shooed the parents down to the breakfast site, where we had donuts and coffee
waiting. Each family got a little tulle bag full of Hershey's hugs and kisses and a rose made from Hershey's kisses (check their website under the craft section) for a parenting job well done in addition to the poem/picture card. As the parents mingled and got to know one another, we had a chance to promote the school and the PTA. The event lasted 1.5 hours (!) and the parents really seemed to appreciate it.
The only thing I think I'll do differently next year is change the name to the "Big Step" breakfast--there was no boo-hooing going on at all!
So, how did everyone else fare?
Thanks for all the postings on this subject. I never could have pulled this together without them!
