忙! 忙! 忙! Busy! Busy! Busy!

I haven't been sleeping much lately. I guess all the procrastinating had caught up with me. Our school had its annual International Day Festival last Friday and I was responsible for the Taiwan booth. More on that later. Then in planning for the International Day, I stumbled upon the idea that the students from our school should have a pen pal program with Taiwanese students. So I started on that and the responses exceeded my expectation. Then, as I am the Box Tops Coordinator of my children's school, I had to count up all the Box Tops that our students had collected since October for mailing before June 1. Many Box Tops expired on June 1, so I was trying to beat that deadline. The final Box Tops event I had planned for our school was the classroom competition. The winning classroom from the 2 grade groups (kindergarten to grade 2 AND grade 3 to grade 5) will win a pizza party, popsicle party, or a donut party. The competition got fierce the last few days. Last night around 2AM, I finally counted all the Box Tops and declared a kindergarten class and a grade 3 class winners. These classes average more than 50 Box Tops collected per student.

Today, I went around to different chain restaurants in my neighborhood to solicit for free kids' meals as prizes for my Box Tops raffles. Tomorrow, our principal will pick out the winners to the last 3 raffle events (Holidays, Valentine's Day, and May Day). I am absolutely terrible to actually do the Holidays raffle in June!!! I have to distribute all the prizes to the winning students before Thursday noon! I have about 36 hours to do it all. Should I have left everything to the last minute?! Of course not! And I tell myself each year to do everything ahead of time, but a procrastinator will always be a procrastinator.

Anyways, it had been a very difficult school year for me academically--I had to "guide" my daughter through grade 4 and there were numerous projects and assignments that meant many late nights for me and my daughter. Over the course of the past school year, I have learned to step back and let my daughter do her own thing. I am hoping that my daughter also learned something in the process--to utilize the methods I have shown her, so she'll be able to work on her assignments and projects by herself in the future.

這一個禮拜來, 我每晚的睡眠不會超過四小時。上星期四晚上我還 “玩” 通宵呢! 為了趕做兩個海報,我整晚都沒睡! 然後星期五我又得到學校站一整天, 因為我負責我們學校國際節的臺灣攤位。為了能讓我們的臺灣攤位不遜色於日本、韓國及中國, 我攪盡腦汁, 想盡辦法凸顯臺灣的特色。因為我已經做了五年臺灣攤位, 差一點就想不出什麼新點子出來。改天再來 po 有關我們學校的國際節活動。

這星期讓我最忙的事情就是處理 Box Tops 的收集活動比賽。全校的每一班都可以參與。哪一個班級收集最多的 Box Tops 就可以贏得一個班派對。我數了一個星期的 Box Tops, 今年的贏家終於揭曉--低年級的贏家是大甲班, 高年級的贏家是三乙班。這兩班的小朋友平均每個人收集了六十個 Box Tops。大甲班的小朋友決定要開個冰棒派對。三乙班的小朋友要辦個甜甜圈派對。老師說要辦派對就明天辦。剛剛下課後,我趕快跑到 Von's 去訂了二打甜甜圈。明天下午我再去買冰棒送去學校!

後天就是這學期的最後一天。小孩子放假, 我也放假! 至少我有二個月的時間可以睡到自然醒! Yay!

Box Tops

My children's elementary school is constantly in need of money to supplement the lack of funding from the state. On top of straight cash donations to the school, the parents (and the PTA) from our school also do a lot of fundraising events throughout the school year. I help out when I can. My main contribution is doing the Box Tops at our school. I have been the Box Tops coordinator of our school for 4 years now. I have collected Box Tops before my children were school age. Since no one wanted to do the Box Tops after our last Box Tops coordinator moved on to the Middle School, I just took over the job.

The Box Tops program is very easy. There is a Box Tops on most of the General Mills, Kimberly Clark, and Hefty products. Just look for the Box Tops and clip them. Each Box Top is worth 10 cents. There is an expiration date on each Box Top, so the Box Tops need to be mailed to General Mills before the Box Tops expire. The role of the Box Top coordinator is to collect all the Box Tops submitted by the parents, teachers, and volunteers. Then I would sort (get rid of all expired Box Tops or Box Tops without a date), count, package, and mail the Box Tops to General Mills. Our last Box Tops check from General Mills was $1,747 and that's a staggering 17,470 Box Tops which I have counted and sorted!!!

For a list of participating Box Tops products, please go to:

http://www.boxtops4education.com/AboutBoxTops/Products.aspx

Everyone should be collecting Box Tops. I think Ziploc bags and Kleenex are staples in every household. Huggies diapers and products also have Box Tops. Just look for the Box Tops on the packages of everything you buy, you'll be surprised with how many Box Tops you have in your house. Instead of throwing the Box Tops in the trash, bring the Box Tops you have collected to the schools in your neighborhood. Your school will really appreciate your Box Tops contributions. Be careful when you cut out the Box Tops. There is an expiration date on every Box Top. General Mills will not accept any expired Box Tops or Box Tops without a visible expiration date.

By the way, if you have collected Box Tops but you don't have a school to support, please send your Box Tops to our school:

Box Tops
Lunada Bay Elementary School
520 Paseo Lunado
Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274-4377
USA

Please leave a contact address or email, you will get a thank-you note from our students. A million thank you from me and our students!

At our school, I don't push parents and teachers to buy Box Tops products. All I am asking is for the school supporters to look in their houses for these products. Everyone is often surprised with how many Box Tops they have in their houses. Whenever I visit my dentist's office, I would ask the office manager there for the Box Tops underneath the Kleenex boxes in the dentist's examination rooms.

Every cent counts.

因為加州政府一直削減補助教育及學校的預算,導致學校經費不足。雖然我的小孩所就讀的小學是公立小學,學校在每年開學時都要家長再捐錢。雖然沒有強制執行,家長多多少少都會再捐一點錢,不過還是會有人覺得不必要再捐錢給學校。所以學校的家長會(PTA)及校長就會想出一些募款的方法。 我們的校長很支持家長利用自己的時間幫助學校多掙一點錢。

我從我女兒還很小時就開始收集 Box Tops了。到了她上小學後我很自然的就做起他們學校的 Box Tops 連絡人。Box Tops 這個募款方案很簡單。它是美國最大的食品公司 General Mills 想出來的好點子。這公司把它一些產品的包裝加了個 Box Top。每個 Box Top值 US$0.10 (10 cents)。家長必需把每個 Box Top 從包裝上剪下來、收集、然後再交給學校的 Box Tops 連絡人。最後再由這位 Box Tops 連絡人將所有收集來 Box Tops 的算好、整理好、再寄去給 General Mills。三個月後, General Mills 就會寄一張支票給學校。學校要怎樣花這筆錢,General Mills 不會多加管制。以我們學校來講,這筆經費是由學校的學生會 (student council) 來決定用途。有一年,我們的學生會(student council)用了Box Tops 的錢買了一部 DVD Player 給每一班。我們學校有二十班,所以學生會就花了一千多塊買了二十台 DVD Players。

今年我們學校收集了17,470張 Box Tops。所以一月份 General Mills 寄了一張 US$1,747 的支票給我們學校。雖然 $1,747 離我想要的 $2,500 目標還差很多,我還是很高興能幫學校募到一千多元。

Box Tops 常常出現在 Cheerios 和其它 General Mill 的 Cereals 盒子上面。 Kleenex 衛生紙的盒子底及 Ziploc 的包裝都有 Box Tops。 就連 Huggies 尿布片的包裝都有 Box Tops。 這裏有所有 Box Tops 產品的目錄:

http://www.boxtops4education.com/Downloads/Coordinator/Clip/ParticipatingProductsFlyer2008.pdf

需要更多有關 Box Tops 的資訊? 請到 http://www.boxtops4education.com/AboutBoxTops/ 查看。

有一點要注意的事是每個 Box Top 都有一個時限(Expiration date)。當您在剪 Box Tops 時,千萬要小心,不要把那時限 (Expiration date) 剪掉。 General Mills 也不收過期的 Box Tops。

如果您也收集了一堆 Box Tops,但不知道可以給誰,因為 Box Tops 是有時限的,您不妨捐給我們學校。我們會非常的感謝您的。

請您把 Box Tops 寄到:

Box Tops
Lunada Bay Elementary School
520 Paseo Lunado
Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274-4377
USA

請您留下連絡方法,我們學校的小朋友會寫感謝函給您的。

謝謝大家!