The PTA Community Outreach Committee aims to encourage and facilitate the involvement of the Murray Avenue School and its students and their families in community service, particularly where there are needs in areas near and around our school. Many parents believe that school is an ideal way to help children learn how easy and rewarding it is to incorporate service ideas into their lives, and how a child’s small efforts can improve others’ lives. This Committee aims to coordinate school-wide and grade-specific outreach programs and will respond to events that could not have been forecasted, i.e., hurricane relief, etc.

School-Wide Activities

As of March 2011, the following school-wide activities are planned for the 2010-2011 school year:

Annual Book Drive: November 8-12, 2010

The Committee is coordinating a book drive to benefit of Public School 100 in the Bronx and the Open Door Family Center. Murray Avenue School families are asked to donate gently used books and educational DVDs appropriate for elementary school students.

Coordinator: Elissa Bard

Thanksgiving Food Collection: November 21, 2010

Partnering with the Larchmont/Mamaroneck Hunger Task Force to collect food for local families in need, Murray Avenue School students (and parents/guardian) helped to collect and sort food items outside Stop and Shop on the Boston Post Road on November 21, 2010. Murray Avenue School students volunteered to collect and sort food during a 1 or 2 hour shift during the day.

Coordinator: Liz Pittman

Love in a Box: February 7-11, 2011

Murray Avenue School students decorated shoe boxes and filled them with small gifts and notes to children in need. This is a project that encourages children to reach out to other children. Download the flyer here.

Coordinator: Stephanie Basta

Grade-Level Activities

In addition, the Committee will coordinate grade-level projects throughout the school year. As those projects are developed, we will update this web page. In the meantime, below is contact information for the coordinator for each grade.

Kindergarten: The kindergarten project will be a combination of school beautification and outreach. The kindergarteners will plant seeds in their classrooms watching them grow into plants and flowers that will be then transplanted around the grounds of Murray Avenue School. Kindergarten teacher, Mr. Hebron, is coordinating this grade level project.

Coordinator: Elissa Bard

First Grade: The first graders will each bring in an old board book from their home to donate to the Open Door Medical Clinic. Inside the book, they will enclose a card with a special drawing on it for the children in the clinic.

Coordinator: Elissa Bard

Second Grade: Second graders created activity mats and we donated them to the Blythedale Children's Hospital for the hospital to give to patients who are staying in the hospital or waiting for care.

Coordinator: Robin Gensburg and Elly Patterson

Third Grade:  The third grade classes participate in a pen pal program that is coordinated by the third grade classroom teachers, respectively. There are no PTA Coordinators for this grade.

Fourth Grade: Fourth graders students will make individual New York themed activity pages including crossword puzzles, seek and finds, and pictures to color, based on their knowledge from the curriculum they studied this fall. Books will be assembled with the students' pages and a cover contest will be held. All the books will be delivered to Robbie's Room, an after school program run by My Sister's Place.

Coordinator: Michelle Pfeffer and Meg Deshpande

Fifth Grade: Fifth graders will prepare lunches for distribution by Midnight Run to homeless people the weekend of April 8, 2011.  Each fifth grader will decorate a bag, prepare a sandwich and assemble a meal.  Mr. Rivel is the teacher-coordinator/contact.

Coordinator: Sarah Coady