Thurston Happenings

IMPORTANT DATES

10/13 (Today Sunday) Road Safety Expo at TOW School 11AM -2PM
10/14 - 10/18 Donate gently used Halloween Costumes to TOW
10/16 SchoolPower Dodgeball
10/16 - 10/18 Minimum Block Days (school out at 1PM)
10/25 Reflections Art Contest Submissions Due
10/25 El Morro School Boo Blast 2:30PM - 7PM
10/26 (Saturday) Thurston PTA Thalia Beach Cleanup 9AM -12PM
10/31 Halloween is on a Thursday
11/2 Sports Swap

Thurston PTA Beach Cleanup

Saturday, October 26 from 9AM -12PM

Location: Thalia Beach

50 people have signed up so far.

Join us for our 2nd annual Thurston PTA Beach Cleanup. This year we are starting at Thalia and families can make their way south to Brooks Street or head north to Main Beach.

If 75 students and adults signup in the link below, Thurston PTA will receive 20 Disneyland tickets that will be used as student prizes for the Kindness Challenge in January (10 lucky kids will win 2 Disneyland tickets in an opportunity drawing).
PTA will provide environmentally friendly trash bags and latex free gloves.
PTA will also provide water in compostable cups, coffee and snacks.
Bring your beach gear if you plan on making it a family beach day. Some of the kids might want to surf, skimboard, boogie board or just have fun tossing the football.
Great way for families to spend quality time together and for new families to meet new people!
El morro, TOW, High School families and the community are all welcome to join us.

Sports Swap November 2

Now is the time to set aside your gently used sporting good items to donate or consign to Sports Swap, such as surfboards, paddle boards, skimboards, boogie boards, snow boards, skateboards, bikes, razors, scooters, wetsuits, ski & snowboarding clothing and sports-related items!

Sports Swap Chair James Azadian will gladly come to your house and pickup your gently used sporting equipment to donate to the Sports Swap. Text James at 818-645-9177

Items can also be dropped off in the Thurston parking lot on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 from 7:30AM - 2:30PM

Top of the World Elementary School PTA

Extra Costumes Laying Around?

Donate them to TOW PTA's costume drive.

Pass a little imagination and joy along to another child this month by donating your gently used Halloween costumes. October 14-18, TOW PTA will be collecting Halloween costumes as part of our annual Halloween Costume Drive.

All costumes donated will be packaged up and donated to the Boys & Girls Club and Orange County Family and Social Services to distribute to families in need of costumes for their children. A donation box will be located in the front office at TOW school up through Friday 10/18 at noon and PTA volunteers will be collecting them at morning drop off throughout the week of 10/14-10/18. Any size child costume (even infant and toddler) in good condition is appreciated.

Meet the Thurston Team

This week we are pleased to highlight:

Paul Matheson

Teacher - 7th Grade Social Studies /

Exploratory Wheel

Tell us about yourself:

I grew up right here in Orange County as the youngest of 5 kids (my extended family is really big). I played a lot of sports growing up and love the outdoors (one of my favorite memories is surfing perfect waves at sunset after snowboarding fresh powder on the same day!).

I earned my history degree from U.C. Irvine and have taught at Thurston now for nearly 25 years. My lovely wife Kristi and I have thoroughly enjoyed raising our two girls here in Laguna schools. Kaden (our oldest) studied abroad in Rome last year, and Kylee is attending Stanford as a freshman. We're a very tight knit family and rely on each other for everything.

What website do you visit most often?

We purposely don't have cable TV in our house so we won't be tempted to watch so much video....but I must confess I'm a sucker for YouTube.

What did you think you'd grow out of but haven't?

Eating toast!

What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with absolutely no preparation?

The intricacies of how to properly toast bread.

Who inspires you to be better?

My amazing wife!

What stat for your life would you most like to see?

The total number of steps I've taken during my teaching career.

What is your best advice for students?

ATTITUDE is everything. You have to challenge yourself to make the best of any situation.

What is your best advice for parents?

Being a parent is hard! But, keep it simple: decide on just a handful of the most important things you want to hold your kids accountable for, and then spend all the rest of your efforts showing them how much you love them and value what THEY find interesting and important.

Thank you Paul Matheson for participating in our weekly teacher & staff interview!

DODGEBALL X

Cheer on your friends at Dodgeball X this Wednesday, October 16 @ LBHS. It’s the perfect fun outing for a minimum day! Grades 4-5 play at 3:00pm, Middle Schoolers at 4:30 and High School/Adults at 6:30pm. Spectators are free! Pre-order your meal of hot dogs, grilled cheese or empanadas, or buy food when you arrive!

SCHOOLPOWER’S

WAVE OF GIVING

SchoolPower's Wave of Giving campaign is on now! Our goal is to raise $500,000 for Laguna Beach students and we can’t do it without you. At Thurston, SchoolPower helps to support music, visual and performing arts, STEM, digital literacy, field trips, social emotional support, academic support, and more! Give today at give.lbschoolpower.org.

Thank you to Leslie Heard, Tanya Spence-Spangler, and Shannon Huhn

for volunteering for Ball Room Last Week!

Thank you to everyone who volunteered for Super Hikes last week:

Kari Menter, Lourdes de Quillien, Maggie Kruse, Jody Hermie, Lisa Barreth, Faith Mills, Trisha Dearing, Hang Tran Arrasin, Andrew Marriner, Lori Werstein, Angela Lynch, Liz LoBosco, Stacie Meierhoefer, Frank Mead, Mandy Sloan McDow, Charity Morsey, Meg Weidner, Marcie Hoch

Thank you to our fabulous Thurston PTA Staff Hospitality co-chairs:

Lisa Britt, Angela Chin and Roshaunie Sirianni for organizing the amazing Teacher and Staff Meeting Breakfast last Friday and a big thank you to all the generous Thurston families that donated breakfast items!

A big thank you to all the generous Thurston families that donated breakfast items!

Ali Rowley, Stacey Smialowicz, Peri Doshi-O'Neill , Lindsey Richland, Tracy McLellan, Leslie Heard, Angela Chin , Lily Wen-Burdiek, Jingjue Tang, Stacey Callahan, Lisa Barreth, Julie Rohrer, Amy Dechary, Stacey Smialowicz, Nancy Boxberger, Noelle Gamber, Johnna Gherardini, Diana Guerrero, Julie Coccas, Laura Storke, Sherri Morgan, Stacie Bina, Roshaunie Sirianni,

Faith Mills, Celine Macmillan, Charly Rowan

Ball Room Sign Up

Volunteers Needed this Monday & Tuesday

A parent volunteer is needed at lunch time each day to check out balls.

The job entails showing up at the specified time, going to the Ball Room, pulling out the sign-out sheet for the balls, monitoring that kids sign the balls out.

After 45 minutes and the end of lunch, the kids will return the balls, the parent volunteer puts the sign-out sheet away and the job is completed.

You can sign up for a weekly, monthly, or one time experience. It takes less than one hour of your time. Questions? Contact Ball Room Chair Leslie Heard HERE

Click Here for Ball Room Sign Up

SignUp For November Super Hike!

Super Hike volunteers make a commitment to be at school during a specific time to accompany the students on their P.E. hike. The hike is always on a block day (Thursday/Friday) and usually takes place once a month. It is a fun and invigorating opportunity to spend time with the kids and we are grateful for your desire to be a part of it.

PTA Reflections Art Contest QUICK FACTS:

* The Reflections contest theme is “Look Within”.

* It is the 51 ^st year of the contest.

* Our LBUSD school deadline is Friday October 25

at 2PM.

* Students of all ages/abilities welcome.

* Thurston students submit your entries in the

Thurston office.

Students may submit as many entries as they like in any of 6 categories: literature, photography, visual art (2D and 3D), music composition, dance choreography, film making.

District Exhibit/Reception at TOW for all LBUSD schools: 11/21, 5PM

Thurson PTA will have a pizza party at lunchtime for all TMS students that entered. Date to be determined. Gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian/vegan options available too.

Questions? Please contact Thurston PTA Reflections Chair Lori Werstein at: loriwerstein@yahoo.com