To our returning families, Welcome back to The Ridge, and to our new families, we are happy to have you here. I’m Aramide Boatswain, President of the Pleasant Ridge Elementary PTA. It’s been a busy week, but we hope you are all settling in and back to the rhythm of school.

Along with the rest of our PTA Board – Amy Sontag (Secretary), Jackie Sweet (Treasurer), Amy Good (VP Volunteer Engagement), Mandy Rogers (VP Communications), Kristin Harper (VP Fundraising) and Cori Kuder (VP Enrichment), I am excited to work with you and our staff on behalf of our children. Parents and guardians are so important to our school’s success, and the PTA is a key way that you can support our school.

Over several years, through enrichment activities and fundraising,  and the gift of time, our PTA volunteers have made it possible for our children to attend annual field trips for all grades, worked at book fairs, during which hundreds of books went home with students and onto the shelves of our school library, raised money for tools in classrooms ensuring each child has access to the tech resources they need, put together collaborative spaces across the school, planned fun assemblies, movie nights, spring celebrations, tailgates and pancake suppers, enrichment activities, community events and championed advocacy for smaller classroom sizes district-wide and other benefits for all our children.

Funds generated from activities support the school and staff through our grant program and staff appreciation efforts. The PTA does so much more beyond fundraising for library materials, field trips, building enhancements, and you’ll be hearing more from us about that as the school year gets underway.

The PTA is ALWAYS looking for people to volunteer…so if you have a passion or interest, let us know!! We have 2 key committees; Fundraising and Enrichment. If you believe you have talents that you could share to help or plan events please let us know by reaching out to the VP.  We could also use a couple of tech volunteers, so if you have a passion for social media, WordPress or simply getting the word out about what we do, let us know, please reach out! There are many opportunities to be involved with our children, and the look on their faces when they recognize parents, family or friends in the community volunteering at school is irreplaceable. Our volunteers are in the classroom but also at home. Any amount of time you can give is great, whether it’s two hours a year or two hours a week. Whatever works best for you, we can make it work!

The MOST important first step you can take to get involved is to become a PTA member. The form is available by clicking HERE. We encourage our PTA members to serve as Event Chairs and have a voting voice on new business at the monthly PTA meetings!

PTA meetings are held on the 2nd Thursday of every month during the school year, from 9am to 10:30am in the teacher’s lounge. Our next meeting is on September 13  – little ones are welcome too. We hope you can join us and look forward to seeing you around. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook, too.

Thanks again for being a part of our #PRPride! The entire board and I look forward to working with you this school year!

– Aramide Boatswain
president@prpta.org