Magazines anyone?

The time of year that every Henley parent has looked forward to in recent years is again upon us. What time is that, you ask? Report cards? Not quite. School dances? Well, yes, but that's not what I'm thinking about. Winter Break? No such luck.

The time of year I'm talking about, of course, is the annual PATSO magazine drive. The magazine drive has been a Henley tradition for many years now and has allowed our PATSO to support both teachers and students in a number of ways. The funds we have raised in previous years have gone toward providing a lunch fund for some students in need, purchasing equipment for our classrooms such as computers, digital cameras, and ELMOS (if you've never seen an ELMO, it's really cool--sort of like an overhead projector on steroids), and supporting our teachers with classroom supplies and the occasional meal or two. We've been squirling away much of the money that we've earned over the past couple of magazine drives for a big ticket item that may finally be close to reality--a replacement for the Henley Hive.

For those of you who don't know the history of the Hive, it was a huge play structure that was incredibly popular with the students of Henley. Unfortunately, the hive had to come down when we did our most recent renovation, and we've been fighting a nightmare of red tape trying to get it replaced. It looks like the pieces of the puzzle are finally beginning to come together, and we hope to have an announcement about a new Hive sometime before the end of the year.

In all seriousness, I know that hawking these magazines isn't always the most appealing activity for our parents, but it does allow Henley to do some things that we otherwise wouldn't be able to do. Our kids really get some cool prizes and awards from it as well. This year there will be a BMX show one day after school for students reaching a certain benchmark, and the ever-popular limousine rides are also making their return.

I truly appreciate all of the blood, sweat and tears that goes into this drive every year and look forward to your continued support.

Here's what happening at Henley over the next few weeks:

September 25--Tornado and lockdown drills
September 25/26--Interim reports distributed
September 28--Back-to-School Dance 4:00-6:30
October 1--PATSO meeting 7:00
October 4 and 10--Parent conferences 4:30-8:15

I hope to see you at many of these events.

Go Hornets!