Chinese New Year Gala News

Communication #1 November 4, 2008 

Chinese New Year 2009

The Year of the Ox

Saturday, February 7, 2009 

Dear YCIS Families, 

It is my honor to introduce YCIS of Silicon Valley’s sixth annual celebration of Chinese New Year.  For those who are new to the school, last year’s event was a tremendous success and we are hopeful that this year we will continue and grow the tradition. 

Our goals are simple, but important:

1. Facilitate and foster relationships and personal connections between  all of our school’s community members’ (students, parents, extended family, teachers, administration and China)
2. Further our community’s understanding of and appreciation for Chinese culture and our school’s unique Chinese tradition
3. Raise much needed financial support for YCIS Silicon Valley

Educational research clearly indicates that children placed with a high performing teacher will progress three times as fast as those placed with a low performing teacher.  As parents, our intuition undoubtedly agrees with this research and many of us likely selected YCIS, at least in part, for its high caliber teachers.   For this reason, we are proud to announce that the net proceeds from our Chinese New Year celebration will be used to attract, develop and retain YCIS’s phenomenal teachers and ensure they have the tools they need to help our children be successful learners.

To maximize the impact on our children’s’ education we need every member of our school community to participate in our Chinese New Year celebration that will be held from 10am to 2pm on Saturday, February 7, 2009 at the Crown Plaza Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto.  The event will include a banquet lunch, student performance, and silent and live auction.

An event leadership team has formed and our plan is to regularly communicate over the next three months the details and plans for this fantastic event so everyone can participate and enjoy themselves.  As members of this remarkable community we invite you to engage in the planning and preparation process and will be including in each communication a list of the hundreds of opportunities to be a part of this annual school-wide event.  We encourage everyone to review the “How can I help?” section of each communication and become an active member of the Chinese New Year celebration team.

On a personal note, I am grateful for an opportunity to support my child’s school.  As a professional educator I am dependent upon parents for providing what we call the three “T’s”, time, talent and treasure, all of which are critical to the success of every school.  I believe it is important to recognize that we all have different capacities for giving in each of these three categories.  Chinese New Year 2009 will offer opportunities for everyone to give of their time, talent and treasure to their own personal capacity, and it will be through 100% participation that we will achieve our goals. (Many hands make light work.)  Please join me by finding a way to get involved. 

Please don’t hesitate to share thoughts, ideas and questions that we can include in these communications. 

Diane Tavenner

dtavenner@thesummitinstitute.org

Mother of Rett 1A 

How can I help? 

1. Join the leadership team - Email Diane with your interest
2. Personally donate an auction item – Go to http://cny.cmarket.com/ and follow the instructions
3. Solicit a business to donate an auction item – Email enochchoi@yahoo.com for instructions and forms

 

Next communication?  A description of the friendly class competition for auction item contributions and class gifts!