Parents’ Auxiliary Minutes
February 14, 2017
Attendees:
Kathy Barton, Emily Branch-Okala, Renata Casey, Gretchen Cooney, Carolyn Gilligan, Cinde
Hark, Leigh Lingle, Christi Neilly, Stephanie Ortiz, Elizabeth Petrizzo, Nicole Schlich, Kristen
Sheffer, Trudy Rosato Simpson, Katie Storrer & Ruth Strid.
Handouts (1):
Parents’ Auxiliary Meeting Thursday, February 14, 2017
Opening Prayer: led by Leigh Lingle
Executive Reports:
· Approval of Minutes: Kristen and Emily
· Nominating Committee: As Past President, Kristen Sheffer is the chair of the
Nominating Committee. For 2017-18, we’ll need to nominate a new Vice President,
Recording Secretary and two new members at large. Tom and Deb also need to
approve those selections. All are two year commitments. Members at large are required
to attend all PA meetings and support Parents’ Auxiliary activities. Examples include
volunteering for activities, and/or rallying others to attend events such as the auction. If
you know anyone who is interested or who would be a great candidate for PA, please
bring it to our attention by nominating them, and don’t be shy to self-nominate. A lot of
people do that, too, Gretchen said.
Development Reports AUCTION UPDATE:
· Tribute Book—Kristen Sheffer: We have over $90,000 in sponsorships, Katie
confirmed. Kristen said, we didn’t get the two large sponsorships that we got last year. We
didn’t have any sponsorships at the $10,000 level, but this year we have more at the lower
levels and hopefully we’ll get that through the Raise Your Paddle. Gretchen said that it’s
not unusual for the chairs to give that money, and it’s certainly not the requirement for the
chairs to do that, but it makes sense for them to give the year they chair and then step
back. Kristen said that this year at the $1,250 Sponsorship level we gave a discount on the
tickets for $250 instead of $300 plus the $1000 sponsorship and people were interested in
doing that. The book is in production now and we are expecting the first draft the week of
March 6 . If anyone is interested in looking at it for an hour it would be greatly appreciated
to get fresh eyes to check for any typos. The book actually goes to print March 20 . It will
be ready to go. We will accept sponsorships up until the very end, and there are some
activity, team and class sponsorships that are still available, and it will be easy to add
those names for anyone who chooses to sponsor.
Christi asked if all money donated goes to the school? All money donated, whether at the
auction or before, goes towards Holy Child so it doesn’t matter how you spend your money
it will help the school. Raise Your Paddle is tagged slightly different because it goes to a
particular campaign. Last year it went to the Library. Another year was the Mad Lab. Smart
Boards was one year. This year it goes to enhancements to the cafeteria!
Raise Your Paddle was so awesome and we feel a part of it, Emily and Christi said. You
get caught up in the excitement, Kristen said. Christi also mentioned that with Raise Your
Paddle, let’s make people aware of what’s been done in the past. Maybe share a quick
recap…let’s not forget where we’ve come from, this is affecting our kids every day.
Renata, agreed that when we are about to Raise Your Paddle, do a before and after. Katie
liked the idea of maybe having a visual in addition to someone getting up there and talking
about it. For instance, Christi suggested, a chalkboard and then a smart board and then
the Mad Lab before pictures and then the upgrades to the Library. Katie likes the idea of
recapping prior years. Emily said the teacher who presents it the night of the auction is so
important, too, when Alexis Morsell spoke that one year, Emily had no choice but to give.
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Katie said that boards with a few of the key live auction items will be outside of Kit’s desk.
As we get into March we’ll start advertising Live auction items.
Christi said for parent teacher conferences have people walk through the cafeteria with the
proposed drawings of what they plan on doing.
· “Pre-Auction Experience” Update Katie Storrer: our auction chairs were not able to be here,
but we have received over $3,000 from the pre-auction experiences: Jingle Ball Tickets, house
in Poconos, tickets to several Villanova games and to the Nutcracker Ballet & High Tea. We are
thrilled with the momentum it has had.
*Soon to go online will be:
o Big East basketball tournament tickets for Wednesday, March 8 and Thursday March 9th in
NYC.
o Tickets for Skippyjon Jones at Walnut Street Theater on Saturday, April 1 .
o First weekend of spring break, the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC with hotel visit
and seeing the exhibit.
o Cryosauna Therapy in Wayne donated by Dr. Gray. Caroline works with Dr. Gray on another
charity. Christi explained how it works. It’s a maximum of three minutes in the capsule, you only
have on gloves, socks and shoes and it reduces inflammation. It is great for autoimmune
disease, swelling, It gets to -200 degrees. Body temperature gets to 30 degrees. You can warm
up and do it again. You stand up and your head is out and it’s only 3 minutes. It burns calories.
It’s an anxiety reducer, good for stress. And as Gretchen said, “You walk out and your chilled.”
It’s also good for back pain. You can go as young as 11 as long as you meet the height
requirement. Acne is the inflammation of your pores and it works on that as well. There’s a
tremendous difference between before she goes and after. Katie asked how to best promote it.
The website is www.restorecryosauna.com. How much is it? $40 introductory session and $60
each time. There was a bit of a question as to whether to make this a live auction item or keep it
as a pre-auction experience as people need education about it. Gretchen said we have to be
conscious of having too many live auctions.
· General Updates: Gretchen:
o The invitation stuffing will be held at Trudy’s house on 23 of February starting at 8am with an
ending time of 10. If you can only come at 9, we can still use your help. If you can please RSVP,
let her know.
o Gift Gathering Party for Lower and Middle School families will be held on 25 of February from
7-9pm, and please RSVP so hosts can plan for food.
Christi asked, can you tell us about what gifts you want us to bring? Gretchen said the Auction
chairs have only requested a donation to “cash club” and/or a bottle of wine. Katie said we’re
not going to have the Home, Spa & Fashion table this year at the silent auction. Any gifts that
have been donated will be used on the tables. She has a Lilly dress print which is signed and
framed and donated and that will be there on the Tots, Tweens & Teens table. Sports table is
looking for items as well.
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o Save the date, Saturday, April 22nd at Aronimink Golf Club
General Business:
· Today is teacher and staff appreciation day. Margaret Kresge is hosting our lunch this year.
· Family Mass and Breakfast March 5 at Rosemont College Chapel and Dining Room, please
RSVP—Gretchen spoke about it. It honors the 5-10-20++ year marks. Judy Cassidy, who’s
been here for 40 years will be honored. Because it’s a popular event, please RSVP and try to
get there early because it is standing room only. Last year we had 250 and this year they’ve
increased our number to 300 that are allowed.
· Parenting with Faith with Kim Trinacria. Katie said that she’ll put info out in the Herald for three
different times where we will meet during Lent. With Kim’s teaching schedule, it works best to
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have the meetings in the morning from 7:45-8am. Come early for drop off, you can drop off your
kids as early as 7:30am.
· Cinde (who just joined the meeting) wanted to say something about the Gift Gathering Party,
“Come to the gift gathering party with a check and a bottle of wine.”
Questions/Comments:
Christi said that she went to hear a great speaker at Sacred Heart about social media. She
thinks that we might open our events up to the entire community.
Gretchen said she wants to coordinate with all the schools that this stuff gets out there.
Katie said that she’s working with Deb on that.
Drew from Minding Your Mind. He has done 10 presentations in the past year at the Mount
alone. If we sort of knew what Drew’s tour schedule was. And there’s Katherine Dahlsgaard who
was just speaking somewhere else. It would be nice to know who is speaking in the area at
other schools to give our parents an opportunity to attend.
Next meeting: Thursday, March 16 , 8:15am, Tudor Living Room
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