THE RED HOOK PTSA

By Judi Gelardi, January, 2010

The Red Hook PTSA (Parents Teachers Students Association) was formed many years ago.  Its main purpose is to bring parents, teachers and students together working toward common goals.

However, the Red Hook PTSA is more than a meeting group:  the organization spearheads several fundraising efforts that make mini-grants available to teachers who qualify.  One of the recipients is Mrs. Mary Pat Budd, the head of the Who Cares? Club.  This is a group of environmentally friendly Red Hook Middle School students whose mission is to teach others to re-use and re-cycle by showing how easy this effort can be.

As part of this recycling program, and through the support of funds raised by the PTSA, the Go Green Compost Garden Initiative was started.  The Initiative directs students, during their lunch shifts, to collect food scraps in buckets and add them to a barrel composter (donated by Ken Migliorelli) along with some leaves.  In order to aerate the mixture, the students turn the scraps and leaves every few days allowing the microbes to go to work.  Once the compost is “done,” students will add this to a raised bed garden that has been constructed nearby in the school’s courtyard.  The plan is to start vegetables (and a few flowers) in the early spring so they can be ready for consumption before school ends in June.  The lesson, of course, is to see how food waste – that would ordinarily be thrown out – can be recycled to provide more food!  The Initiative is hoping to also get parents involved this spring, particularly with planting, watering and weeding.

Other mini-grants provided by the PTSA have gone to:  Mrs. Becky Wood, for telescope parts for her science students; Mrs. Debbie Beam, for a biology field trip and for a raptor program that was brought to the High School (see the picture below); Mrs. Mary Ward, for the High School production of Peter Pan; and Mrs. Kim Goldhirsch, for obtaining leadership speakers for the members of the student council.

The PTSA’s next fundraiser will be a chocolate tasting (yum!) on March 5th at Taste Budds Café in Red Hook.  Please come and contribute and enjoy!

Of course, many of Milan’s residents live in the Red Hook Central School District.  If you have a student in the Red Hook schools, please consider joining the PTSA.  For more information, visit the web site at www.redhookptsa.org.