Category Archives: Fundraising

Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week

Read more about teacher and staff appreciation week and check out photos from the different events here!!

We Reached Our Goal! Teachers and Staff will receive gifts $50 Gift Cards to Target this Friday, May 12th!!!

The 2023 ECS Staff Appreciation Week is scheduled to take place from Monday, May 8th through Friday, May 12th. There are many events planned for the week and we need your help making it a success.

Description of the events can be found below. Please consider signing-up to help HERE

  • Monday, May 8th – Chalk Art & Flowers
    • Families are encouraged to come to various ECS school buildings on Sunday, May 7th from 3-5PM to help decorate the sidewalks in front of each school
    • ECS staff will be welcomed to these chalk art/messages on Monday when they arrive.
    • Flowers will also be delivered to the offices and staff lounges at each building (thank you Tia Chutz) 
  • Tuesday, May 9th – Macarons & Coffee
    • Macarons will be delivered to each build for staff to enjoy (thank you Jocelyn Mayr)
    • Coupons for a FREE cup of coffee will also be available to ECS staff courtesy of Ineffable Caphe
  • Wednesday, May 10th – Lunch & Gift Basket Raffle
    • Lunch tentatively planned for PS/IS staff to enjoy (thank you Carol Ann Welsh)
    •  Two gift baskets will be raffled for staff at each building
  • Thursday, May 11th
    • Lunch tentatively planned for MS/HS staff to enjoy (thank you Carol Ann Welsh)
    • Plants/herbs will be delivered to each staff member (thank you Michelle Boehm)
  • Friday, May 12th
    • Target Gift Cards will be distributed to staff with a $ value based on funds collected from the Staff Appreciation end-of-year staff collection
    • Staff will also have the opportunity to designate books they may want to add to their collection for parents to purchase at the bookfair later that day
    • Consider having your kiddos bring in art/cards that show their gratitude for their teachers and other ECS staff 

WE REACHED OUR GOAL!!!!!!

Teacher & Staff Appreciation

Read more about teacher and staff appreciation week and check out photos from the different events here!!

We Reached Our Goal! Teachers and Staff will receive gifts $50 Gift Cards to Target this Friday, May 12th!!!

2023 Year-End Collection

The annual Teacher Appreciation Week falls on May 8th-12th of this year. We’d like to extend our gratitude for all the hard work the staff has done with a comprehensive end-of-year gift collection. 100% of the total amount collected will be divided among homebase teachers, specialists, E-Day, and general staff in the form of gift cards to be presented at the end of Teacher Appreciation Week. There are approximately 250 staff people across 4 campuses and our goal is to be able to give each staff person a $50 Target gift card.

Contributions can be made via PayPal or by check. We’re sorry, but cash cannot be accepted. Checks should be made payable to “ECS PCO” and sent to Jill Farringdon, 5539 Pocusset Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. If you send a check, you will receive an email confirmation that the check has been received.

A suggested donation is $15-$20 per student attending ECS, but we are so very grateful for any amount you can comfortably give; no amount is too little (or too much)!

The deadline for making contributions is Wednesday, May 3rd.
Questions? E-mail: staffappreciation@ecspco.org

Link to contribute ECS PCO PayPal collection for Staff Appreciation

WE REACHED OUR GOAL!!!!!!

Fair Trade Marketplace ONLINE in 2020


The Fair Trade Marketplace will be happening in a new and different way this year. Instead of an in-person event in the ECS school building, we’ll be asking supporters to purchase their fair trade gifts online through our vendors’ websites. In return, ECS will receive a percentage of the sales we send to these vendors so we can continue to raise critical funds for the school and support fair trade artisans around the world at the same time.

We will be announcing these opportunities now through December 2020, so keep an eye on this page!

Our first partnership is with an organization whose artisans quickly switched gears to making face masks during lockdown in India. ZuMantra is a Pittsburgh-based company working with artisan cooperatives in South Asia. They are offering 10% of all sales with this promo code: “CHARTER” to ECS. All profits from these masks will go back to the women artisans. In addition, they are also donating a mask for each mask bought to Pittsburgh non-profit 412 Food Rescue! To place an order, go to http://www.zumantra.org/masks and enter promo code “CHARTER” on the shopping cart page.

Your PCO donations at work!

Every time we raise money through our community, we turn it right back around and invest it all across our three schools in ways big and small. We are pleased to share below our Mini-Grants awarded this year, Specialist Fund requests fulfilled, and some of the many things we have provided funding for.

Mini-Grants Awarded 2019-2020 Academic Year:

– Parent Resource Center (housed in Middle School)
– Battle of the Books (Middle School)
– Culturally Diverse Picture Books to Read and Share
– Spanish Class Resources (K-5)
– Tourniquets/Clotting gauze for Staff (all grades)
– Flexible Seating (4A)
– Children’s Grief Awareness Day (35 students in 3 schools)
– 6th Grade Literacy grant request
– 8th Grade Literacy grant request
– Kindergarten Grade Literacy grant request
– Stars of Hope (Middle School)
– Speed Stacking Cups (Middle School PE)
– GSSU Gender Sexuality Student Union
– Sustainable & Safe Edible School Yards
– Lower School Garden & Apple Tree Guild (1st & 2nd grade)
– Chess Club (23 first graders)
– New Calculators for 6th Grade Math
– ECS Ecostewards Rain Garden Rehab
– Middle School Project Fair (“Museum of Student Work”)
– Nature looms for all 3 campuses (access at recess)
– 3rd Grade Literacy – Mystery Series Books
– Lighting for All Occasions (school-wide events – Mr. R.)
– Shelves for PE (intermediate school)

Specialist Fund:

K-5 Music: Let the Creativity Begin!
K-5 Health/PE: Goals in Intermediate PE
K-5 ESY: Season Extension
K-5 Discovery: Discovery Block Imaginative Play
K-5 Thinking Lab: Supplies
K-5 Spanish: Bilingual Books
Athletics: Additional Basketball & Futsal Uniforms (Middle School ECS athletes)

Special gift to Middle School: Gaga Ball Pit

Publications:
– Directory Printing
– Calendar Printing
– K-5 Yearbook

Ongoing Funds:
– Garden Fund
– Health/Nurse Fund
– Helping Hands Fund
– Specialist Fund

In-Class Activities
– Classroom party kits
– Room parent funding (budget given for each classroom)

Academic Support
– Special Programming/Enrichment
– Teacher Book Fund expenses

ECS Staff
– Staff Appreciation Gifts
– Staff Coffee Supplies
– Staff snacks, treats and sweets

PCO Community Events
– Fall Festival
– New Families Welcome
– Scavenger Hunt
– School Summer Events
– Summer Play Dates
– Gingerbread House Decorating

School Events
– Field Days
– Middle School Social Events

PCO COVID-19 Relief Fund

Blooming Bash 2020 ONLINE AUCTION

UPDATE: Auction winners announced here

The Blooming Bash, ECS’s annual adults-only party, is the most important PCO fundraiser of the year. Proceeds support the PCO general fund, which provides critical funds for community events, school programming and projects, mini-grants, classroom support, and so much more. In light of the Covid-19 related event cancellation, the Blooming Bash auction is moving to an online portal. This format is new to all of us, but we are hopeful participants will be able to bid, have fun, and support our wonderful ECS PCO! Bid on auction items and buy raffle tickets here.