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We're coming together as a community to stage the
World's Largest Pie Fight to raise money to keep a preschool open for
the youngest learners of the Pomeroy-Palmer school district. $1 buys 1
pie for the world's sweetest arsenal!
These and other donations to the Early Childhood Foundation will be
used to help maintain our Preschool and Childcare Programs. Click
on the above banner to make an online contribution or use
this link
To send a check:
Pomeroy-Palmer Early Childhood Foundation
c/o Pomeroy-Palmer Community School District
202 East Harrison
Pomeroy, IA 50575
Questions? crvrba@gmail.com
or call 712-358-0465
Thank you for your support!
About the need..
"Not only is this decision we are about to make not in the best interest of our students, it's not in the best interest of our district in the long-term."
The words of Pomeroy-Palmer school board member Jason Gerdes as he, along with the other four members of the group, voted in April to eliminate the district's preschool program for the 2011-12 school year. The vote came after over an hour of discussion and was made with great reluctance by all of the members.
Why did they vote to close the preschool? No money. With the Iowa legislature uncommitted to funding preschools for the upcoming school year and in the future, the district had no other choice but shutter what has been described as it's most essential education program.
“This is the most important part of the school,” Gerdes went on to say at the meeting. “It’s the star that keeps the elementary open.”
Like many rural districts, population losses have led to fewer and fewer children in the schools. As a result, maintaining essential services, like a preschool, has been increasingly difficult.
Since that made-for-Maalox meeting, local community members have banded together to take action to preserve the tradition of academic excellence for all of the children of the Pomeroy-Palmer school district. The Pomeroy-Palmer Early Childhood Foundation has been established to direct donations specifically to ensure the school continues to operate a preschool this fall and into the future. It allows supporters of the Pomeroy-Palmer and Pocahontas Area school district, the communities they serve or anyone who feels preschool education is important to help keep quality education alive for our youngest learners.
On Saturday, July 9 we will stage the World's Largest pie fight in conjunction with the Pomeroy Homecoming celebration. It will be the Pomeroy Cyclones versus the Pomeroy-Palmer Knights! Palmer Panthers and Pocahontas Area Indians and Maidens, or anyone else who wants to have a sweet time for sweeter cause, can join whatever team they choose. The weapon of choice will be simple pudding and whipped cream complete with school colors. For every dollar donated, a pie will be added to the fight.
The school has established an online donation tool on their webpage.
To donate, please click here: http://www.payschools.com/cat.asp?id=B3F9ACD43B6347299A5D57397CE844FF
We understand that not everyone who may be interested in contributing to our tasty fundraiser and fight may not be able to attend on July 9. We will record the events and post them on this site for your viewing pleasure.
Though we'd like you to like our cause, we'd rather you help support children by making a donation of any size to the Pomeroy-Palmer Early Childhood Foundation.
We'll need to have about 25,000 pies to fully fund the preschool. If you're interested in donating many munitions to the cause, we are a 501(c)3 foundation.
It may sound like a daunting challenge, but the people of our communities and people all over have shown an unwavering commitment to our children and our future. We believe we can continue to capture that commitment and keep our "star" alive for years to come! But to do that, we need your help
To keep up with our progress, here are 2 Facebook pages:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/2011-Pomeroy-Homecoming-Pie-Fight-to-Help-the-Tikes/127051770710403?sk=wall
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Will-25000-People-Donate-1-Before-the-Iowa-Legislature-Funds-Preschools/136737166403326?sk=wall
Here's where you can read archived newspaper articles about the
problem:
Future of education at stake as PAC, P-P weigh reorganization;vote
to be held Tuesday, Feb. 1
http://issuu.com/christophervrba/docs/school_reorganization
Voters back PAC, P-P
http://issuu.com/christophervrba/docs/merger_passes
Budget woes force P-P school board to cut $150k in faculty for
upcoming year
http://issuu.com/christophervrba/docs/p-p_school_cuts/2
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