Below is a summary of the monthly Cape St. Clair Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization meeting.

Important Dates

• Holiday Secret Shop – December 8/9
• Toys for Tots Drive – December 8 – 12
• Winter Chorus Concert – Dec 11
• Billy “B” Assembly – December 16
• Winter Break – December 24 – January 2

CSCES PTO Board

President: Katherine Woods
VP Volunteers: Geralyn Valente
VP School Activities: Yvonne Gazelle
VP Fundraising: Helen Bragaw
VP Social Events: Laura Seebeck
Recording Secretary: Jennie Gordon
Corresponding Secretary: Christy Roberts
Treasurer: Tina Dembowski

Happy Holidays

There will be no PTO meeting in December or January. Enjoy the holiday season! Please join us for the first meeting of 2009 on February 10th in the Media Center.

Check Mate

Five students from the Chess Club represented Cape St. Claire Elementary at the Elementary Charity Team Chess Tournament at the US Chess Center in Washington, DC, on November 22. Forty-one DC-area elementary schools participated. The event collected canned goods to benefit Martha’s Table. It was a fun adventure and our top three players scored a 7 of 12 possible points. Participants included: Lyle Wallace(5th), Kyle Leite(3rd), Sander Miller(3rd), Nick Phelan(3rd),Alex Cubbage(3rd) Great Job! In addition, there will be a Cape St. Claire Chess Tournament at the Cape Clubhouse on Martin Luther King Day in January, open to anyone. More information coming soon!

Holiday Shop 2008

Have you started Christmas shopping yet? Let the Holiday Shop help your children get ready for the holidays! This year’s event will be held on Mon., Dec. 8th and Tues., Dec. 9th from 4:30 until 8:00 pm. The Media Center will be transformed into a winter wonderland where the children can shop for grandparents, parents, siblings, teachers, and friends. Your requests have launched a new category this year: pets! Each gift costs only $2.00! As in the past, we kindly request last names beginning with letters A-M shop on Mon. and N-Z on Tues. This helps ease the congestion. Of course, if you are unable to shop on your “assigned” day, you are welcome to come on the other night. In an effort to be environmentally responsible, we are asking that each child bring a reusable grocery bag in which to carry their gifts. We will have some bags available for those who forget. We look forward to seeing you there! To help out, please contact Heather Kilpatrick @ 410.757.7325 or hskilpatrick@verizon.net.

Chessie News

You can now access your child’s Chessie Club status and information through the Cape St. Claire Elementary School website (www.aacps.org/aacps/capesces), which you can also access through the PTO website (www.cscpto.org). You can find information about Chessie Club and lists of all Chessie titles. And soon you will be able to lookup your child’s name (first name, last initial) and rank. This will be a great way for parents to keep up with how their kids are doing in Chessie and cheer them on. Thanks to Mrs. Horton for creating this great tool!

A Fantastic Book Fair Safari!

Our Scholastic Book Fair was a great success! Thank you to everyone who stopped by the fair to find their favorite books and to support our school and community. This year the “One for Books” program raised over $270 dollars, which was more than last year’s total! All of the money collected provided books to families in our community. In addition, Scholastic is going to donate a book for every dollar we raised. They will be donating 270 books to three non-profit organizations devoted to improving reading skills among children. THANK YOU! Peg McKay and Stacie Cochran-McNeal want to thank everyone who volunteered at the book fair. It was a terrific team of volunteers who covered more 200 hours of book fair shifts, set up and break down of the fair and picking up book fair orders. The book fair was successful, because of everyone’s hard work and commitment to Cape St. Claire Elementary School. Thank you!

5th Grade Pie Sales

The 5th grade classes sold over 250 pies. The 1st place winner, receiving a $50 Target Gift Card was Kiersten Schiller, 23 pies. 2nd Place winner, receiving 2 Bow Tie Movie passes, Emily Hayes, 12 pies. Mr. Poorman’s class will be treated to a pizza pie party for selling 101 pies. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped w/pie pick up: Yvonne Gazelle and Ethan, Anora Schweitzer and Amanda, Becky Heinz & Colleen, Tiffany Shields & Stormy, Tricia Lynch & Gillian, Tammy Conley & Aly, Alesia Ruiz & Briana, Celine Sym & Ariane, Brenda Hall & Diane Schiller. A SPECIAL THANK YOU to Anora Schweitzer for her work on bulb sales and to Dianne Schiller and Aleisa Ruiz for their work on pie sales. Without their help, those fundraisers could never have taken place!!!

Save the Date…

…for the 2009 CSC Elementary Fun Run scheduled for Saturday, April 25th. This is one of the most popular events of the school year, so mark it on your calendars, and start training for the 1-mile or 5K event. We are in need of sponsors as well as volunteers to help solicit sponsors starting NOW. All information and materials are provided. If you’d like to help, please contact Laura Seebeck at mlseebeck@yahoo.com.

Giant A+ Bonus Bucks

To Date, 29 people have registered their Giant Cards with the A+ Bonus Bucks program. If you shop at Giant at all, you should too! It just takes a moment of your time on the computer to earn FREE MONEY for our school. Register your card at www.giantfood.com/aplus using school ID# 01670. You must renew your registration each year. Please sign up ASAP!

And the Winner Was…

The lucky winner of this year’s Restaurant Raffle was Mary Rosner. Congratulations, and have fun eating your way through the best restaurants in the area!

School Directories

…have gone home. Make sure you received yours. A big THANK YOU to Kammy Curry and her team of volunteers who made it happen. Everyone appreciates this useful tool!

Talent Show

The talent show will be in April this year. Watch for notices to be sent home in March.