FRIENDS & FAMILY OF GIRAFFE LAUGH – WELCOME TO 2010:
We are looking forward to a great start to this new decade and are happy to be entering it with all of you!
Thanks for being a part of making our organization strong and successful in 2009. It was a wonderful year with the kids and teachers and families and The Board and Staff are proud to be entering a new decade with such strength of purpose.
PARENTS PLEASE TAKE OUR MARCH SURVEY:
Tell us what you think about Giraffe Laugh and how we can serve you and your children better. The last day to respond to the survey is Wednesday, March 31st, so take a few minutes 5-10 at the most and make your voice heard! Click here to take survey.
PROGRAM NEWS:
As some of you may know we are participating in the Strengthening Families Classes. There are eight total and the objective is to prevent child abuse before it happens. Our goal is to enroll the family, not just the child and to partner with parents more to help them through the often difficult task of raising young children. We will have a small task force once we’re done to talk with some parent representatives to figure out better ways we can meet parent’s needs. Our classes will be done in May which is when we’ll be looking to some of you to help in this regard.
Our second big goal for this coming year is to get a star rating through the QRIS program sponsored by IdahoSTARS. QRIS stands for Quality Rating Improvement System. You know how you like to look at how many stars a movie or a hotel receives before going? Soon, parents will be able to do just that with childcares and preschools. In order to receive the maximum amount of stars (5) the center has to be superior. Experts in the Early Childhood field come in and measure eight different program areas to determine a rating within the first 90 days of signing up. Then we have access to funding to help us make improvements in the areas it’s obvious we could improve. We have one year from that date to make the improvements and then we get our rating! We are truly excited about this adventure because it will make us stronger and a safer, better, more quality place for children and their families. We will involve parents in the process and keep you posted about our progress each month in the newsletter. Watch for coming news!
UPCOMING SPRING EVENTS:
Mark you calendars for the 5th Annual Bowlathon! This year we will be bowling for kids on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at 2:00 pm at Westy’s Bowling Alley by the Fairgrounds. You can download team forms on our EVENTS page and if you’d like to be a sponsor, we’d love to honor your business with a sign over the lane of one of our teams. This is a fun day where we bowl two games and each of the bowlers have collected sponsorships from friends and family. Bowlers bring their collections (we ask each to try to bring in $100) and they get a T-shirt, two free games, bowling shoes and two pitchers of soda or beer. We have contests and prizes during the event and there is a Grand Prize for the top earner and another for the top team! It’s really a lot of fun. Check out our photo’s from last year’s event on our Facebook fan page. All proceeds benefit the children of Giraffe Laugh!
FUNDRAISING WITH FUEL AND GROCERIES & CAMPBELL’S SOUP LABELS:
We have a great fundraiser that benefits you MORE than it does us! We will be rolling this out for the month of February so think about participating on behalf of someone you love! It is called Fundraising With Fuel & Groceries and involves getting back cash – up to $300 per year for grocery or gas purchases. The initial investment is low…only $35 per certificate and we receive $10 from each $35 purchase. Visit our EVENTS page to download the sign-up form. Thanks to Andrea for putting this together!
We also are collecting Campbell’s Soup labels so please bring in your labels (really just need the UPC code on your Campbell’s soup labels) and we will put them to good use. There are boxes for these located at each center. Thanks to Shari for putting this together!
VOLUNTEERS:
We have some fun projects coming up! Participating on one of our parent advisory committees as mentioned above, but also we need some help on our outdoor areas this spring. AND we want to finally paint GL2 this spring as well. If you’d like to be in charge of putting together a paint team or an outdoor team, talk to Lori about paint, Neile (for GL1) or Sheryl (for GL2) for outdoor improvements.
With spring coming up we will also be doing more field trips so please watch for ways you can help by attending with us or driving.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS:
Thanks to our recent donors, Pacific Source, 1st Congregational Church, Casa Mexico, Idaho Power & the AYCO Foundation. We appreciate the involvement of many wonderful groups here in Boise and beyond who care about children and their families.
FALL FRIENDRAISER:
The Fall Friendraiser is an event where we gather to celebrate the past year and to make new friends. This year it is being held on Friday November 13th at 6:30 pm. at Crane Creek Country Club. We would love to have you join us for an evening of dinner, a HUGE silent auction with fabulous prizes and a DVD of our past year and accomplishments. Save the Date and watch for ticket sales soon! Please visit our EVENTS page for more information.
HYDE PARK STREET FAIR CHILDREN’S AREA:
As usual, this was a great success and wonderfully fun! We had over 30 volunteers every four hours helping us make cotton candy, work the carnival games, help kids in and out of bounce houses and painting faces. What a wonderful group of folks that came to help. Everyone received a T-shirt, drinks, snacks and cotton candy.
THANKS also to all those that bought tickets to do all of the fun stuff because without you we can’t raise money for our kids in need. By coming to the carnival you are a part of helping us provide quality early care and education to young children living in economically disadvantaged homes.
Our wonderful sponsors included: Pacific Source, IPN (Idaho Physicians Network), Idaho Power, Professional Innovations, Tetra Tech, Hands On Healing, The Judy Cole Family and Zamzows (with their wonderful fish coupons).
HYDE PARK STREET FAIR:
We are looking for Sponsors for the Giraffe Laugh Children’s Area at Hyde Park Street Fair Sept. 18-20th. We have multiple sponsorship opportunities available with 30,000 in foot traffic. It’s a great advantage to get your name out there while helping local children. Please visit our EVENTS page to see all available possibilities.
4TH ANNUAL LUAU UPDATE:
We once again gathered to celebrate summer and once again did it in style…it’s HOT and STICKY, but so much fun! All those little happy faces getting together with their friends and their parents and teachers…what could be better 
Thanks to all who came and all who helped.
4th ANNUAL LUAU:
This Wednesday at GL2 for present and past parents and families! Let us know if you’ll be here so we have enough for everybody! We serve burgers and dogs and you bring a side dish and chairs. There will be an obstacle course and fingerprinting for the kids.
SWIM LESSON TIME:
If your child is participating in swim lessons, please get your forms filled out and your payments in. It’s going to be fun!
Thank You.
SPRING CLEAN-UP CREW:
We are grateful to the parents, friends and volunteers who helped clean up both centers this spring. Our buildings are shinier and our play areas are more fun thanks to you!
BOWLERS:
Thanks to everyone who bowled with us in March! We had fun.
