A hands-on arts and crafts festival with booths run by LFCSA parents.

FOOD!    CRAFTS!        GAMES!        MUSIC!        FUN!

Don’t miss the Photo Fundraiser!
After paying an entrance fee, your family is photographed by various professional photographers (who are also LFCSA parents) in various settings.  You leave with a CD filled with amazing pictures to use as holiday cards and gifts!

Admission to the Harvest Arts & Crafts Festival is FREE!!!11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Saturday, November 15, 2008

Selma Avenue Elementary School
6611 Selma Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Ramiro Morales, Maggie Goldman & Kaumudi Marathe, Family Support Committee

Last month’s Fiesta Latina was a big success for our school and for our Latino families, with a lot of new and current families attending and enjoying the vibrant festival. There was fabulous home-made Latino food (empanadas, tamales, pupusas, carne asada, etc.) and drink, and a scintillating show by the children, who performed dances from Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, and Brazil. Contemporary Latino music by Inner City Soul provided a cheerful soundtrack and the kids had fun with piñatas and bilingual story time. They also got to try their hand at Latino-inspired crafts and learning about Latino culture, making coil pots, corn husk dolls, copper bracelets, and colorful maracas.

Thank you to all the wonderful families and teachers who cooked, prepped, helped with set-up and clean-up, and supported this event.

As anticipated, we are sold out. We will not be accepting walk-ins at the door. We look forward to seeing those of you who purchased your tickets in time tomorrow night. We hope to see the rest of you at next year’s Big Night Out!

Fundraising Update

Over here in the Fundraising Department, the only thing on our minds is the upcoming LFCSA “Big Night Out” Silent and Live Auction. It’s going to be fabulous, and we really need your help in order to make it a success! You should have already received an “Auction Tip Sheet” in your child’s Thursday packet; now’s the time to thumb through your Blackberry and reach out to friends, co-workers and community for any items/donations that we can auction. Have any industry connections? Does anyone you know have season tickets? Will your hair salon donate some services? Do you know a local restaurant that would spring for a free meal? These are just a few of the many ways you can help contribute to a profitable event.

Another way to participate is to start spreading the word and inviting your friends and family to attend. Why? Because it’s a great way to sell some tickets for the school and guarantee them a great night out. And because, who knows—one of your guests could end up purchasing a big ticket item and in that case, everybody wins!

Keep your eyes peeled for more information on “Big Night Out” in Thursday packets and email blasts. With your help, we can make this a night to remember!

Gabrielle Samuels, Fundraising Chair | fundraising@losfelizarts.org
Gina Leiaghat, Auction Donations Coordinator | leiaghatg - at - aol - dot - com

At a loss for fundraising ideas? If you need some help thinking of ways to raise money for this year’s pledge drive, our families are proving themselves to be a creative source of information. Below are just some of the unique ideas that our families have thought of to raise money for the Capital Campaign.

“We are hosting an exotic Indian dinner, complete with wine/beer, appetizers and dessert & coffee on Sunday, March 9th at a private home in Silverlake. Dinner will be prepared by Kaumudi Marathé, founder and owner of the catering company un-curry (www.un-curry.com), along with moms Nikki Henry, Melissa Hanson, and Marisa Johnston. There is a suggested donation of $75 per person for the dinner, which is tax deductible. The four of us will divide the money we raise to go toward our individual fundraising commitments to the school. There will be two seatings: 6 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Please spread the word to people you know who enjoy excellent Indian cuisine!” RSVP for location and directions to mrsdarcy1 - at - gmail - dot - com or 323-666-3650.
-Kaumudi Marathé, Nikki Henry, Melissa Hanson, and Marisa Johnston

“We donated a car to a company called Cars 4 Causes. They will give 50% of net sale minus the towing charges to the charity of your choice. I requested they contribute the money to LFCSA’s Capital Campaign. LFCSA has now been officially set up as a charity supported by Cars 4 Causes. If you mention LFCSA’s Capital Campaign, they will have all the school’s information. The donated car does not have to be running.”
www.cars4causes.net or 1-800-766-CARE (2273) -Susan Lee

“When I found out the new location of our school, I was so excited to learn it is right down the street from my house. As a realtor, it just made sense to me to make it my priority to help those in our community who will be relocating closer to our new location to find their perfect home. I will donate to our school a percentage of the proceeds from any property that I sell to our community or to someone who was referred through our community. This will be an ongoing fundraiser. I am kicking off the fundraiser with a mixer that will include food, drinks, music and information on the current real estate market. I am going to have the professional team that I work with joining me, which will include Realtors (some of whom specialize in foreclosures), lenders, escrow, title, etc. I think this is a terrific opportunity to get together for some free food, wine, music and fun while learning about the real estate market. It’s planned for the end of March. I hope this inspires other families to get creative with fund raising.” For more information, email regerama - at - gmail - dot - com. -Reg Jones

“Get ready to have a blast on Wednesday, March 26th at 7 p.m.! My husband and I have organized a night of Legendary Drag Queen Bingo at Hamburger Mary’s in West Hollywood. For a $20 suggested donation at the door (cash only please), you get bingo cards for 9 regular games and 1 grand prize game, not to mention an entertaining evening hosted by Bingo-Boy and a fabulous Bingo Hostess. There’s a full menu and bar, as well as valet parking in the restaurant’s own lot. Our daughters’ preschool and many local elementary schools have benefited from this fantastic fundraising opportunity.” Hamburger Mary’s is located at 8288 Santa Monica Blvd at Sweetzer. -Alana Cortes

Fundraising Chair, Gabrielle Samuels | fundraising@losfelizarts.org
Photos by Joel Sigerson

Our first annual LFCSA Harvest Arts and Crafts Festival, held on November 10th, 2007, is one for the record books. The co-chairs, Naomi Slodki and Nicole Whitaker had a vision: to hold an event that truly embodied who we are as a school and a community. They envisioned a festival that would celebrate our children, their creativity, and the values of our school. Mission wildly accomplished!

The Festival had something for everyone: of course there were the inescapable bounce houses for the energetic types, but you could also buy garden pots decorated by students in the weeks prior, and you could even help offset the effects of global worming by setting a worm free into a compost bin with our very own Howard “Al Gore, co-Nobel Peace Prize Winner” Gindoff. The spectacular craft booths were abound with creativity and included activities such as wand-making, puppet craft, headdress styling, tattoo and body artistry (a.k.a. face painting), and you could even dabble in the wind chime arts. There was an incredible spread of homemade chili, hot dogs, and baked goods put on by Alexa Iles and Gina Leighat (and don’t forget Maria’s tamales)! In the auditorium, Adam Kopold ran the Photo Fundraiser where families could have four different sittings with four different professional photographers (also LFCSA parents), and each family left with an amazing array of fantastic photos.

A big bold THANKS to all of the parents who showed up early, stayed late, and worked their patooties off to make this day a blazing success. It never ceases to amaze what we can accomplish when we think out-of-the-box.

LFCSA Parents, YOU ROCK!

Have YOU asked Grandparents and Uncles if they want to buy a LFCSA DVD yet? For a $25 donation, they get an incredible 83 minute professionally created keepsake of LFCSA’s inaugural year. Every single student is featured at least twice as their class is spotlighted. This priceless DVD is a unique and entertaining opportunity to raise money for your school. Have your cash or check (payable to “Andreas Wenger”) ready and buy copies during drop-off or email safety@losfelizarts.org to arrange for your copies to be mailed.

Share your enthusiasm for LFCSA by involving your family in this touching fundraiser.

Fall is in the air (at long last!), and we hope you are as excited as we are about our upcoming Fall Harvest Arts and Crafts Festival. You should all have the date ingrained in your brains by now: Saturday, November 10th, from 11-3pm. When you think about it, this festival truly reflects what our charter school stands for—children creating. There will be a variety of arts and craft booths for your children to let loose their imaginations (and what a perfect opportunity to come home with holiday gifts for grandparents and other relatives), a photo booth, fun activities like basketball and soccer games, as well as bouncy houses for both kids AND adults (how cool is that!) and mountains of mouth-watering food—everything from healthy choices to baked goods to BBQ and more. Remember, admittance to the fair is free, and tickets to the various crafts and food booths can be purchased at the door. If you haven’t volunteered yet, please contact Naomi Slodki at naomislodki@aol.com. It’s so important that each family donates some time to make this event a great success. Thank you so much for your support and see you there!

Dear Parents:
I thought this letter might be helpful in your fundraising efforts. Please feel free to use it as a tool when asking family members for donations to the Capital Campaign.

You can download it from www.losfelizarts.org/pdf/grandparent_donation.pdf

Dear LFCSA Grandparent:

Your grandchild’s school is quickly gaining a reputation as one of Los Angeles’ leaders in the charter school movement. Now in our second year, the school is aspiring to move to a permanent new home. This is a very exciting time for our young school, and we are reaching out to everyone for support, including our community’s grandparents. We are calling it our Capital Campaign, and we want you to be a part of it.

For the school’s Capital Campaign, we are asking each and every family to conduct their own mini-fundraisers to raise $2600, or more, to help reach our goal. As a grandparent of a child who is attending a school successfully implementing a program based on best educational practices, we are asking you to support your grandchild’s school with a monetary donation. All contributions to our 501(c)(3) non-profit are 100% tax deductible.

Attached to this page you will find our Grandparent Donation Form. You may return the form with your donation by mail or in an envelope with your grandchild’s “Thursday Packet.” Don’t forget to fill in the family or student name under which you are making your donation. From myself, our staff, our parents and especially all of our students at LFCSA, thank you for your kind support.

Very Truly Yours,

Ms. Karin Newlin, Principal