Category Archives: Other

Healthy Kids Day

To kick-start physical activity and learning now and throughout the summer – a critical out-of-school time for kids – the West Suburban YMCA is celebrating Healthy Kids Day® with a free community event for kids and families. Healthy Kids Day, the Y’s national initiative to improve families’ health and well-being, features:

  • healthy activities and games
  • arts & crafts
  • curious creatures petting zoo
  • concert by food allergy musician, Kyle Dine
  • bike helmet fitting and giveaway from Farina’s Bicycle Center
  •  visit from Elroy the Elk
  • Kid’s ID
  • skate park demonstration
  • free and open to the community

Saturday, May 2nd, 12 noon – 2:00 pm
The West Suburban YMCA’s gymnasium, 276 Church Street, Newton

In celebration of YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day, the Y offers the following tips to help families develop healthy habits:

· Try, try, repeat – There are many great tasting fruits and vegetables that many kids have never heard of, let alone tried. Grab a new fruit or vegetable and encourage
everyone in the family to try at least a bite.
· Play around town – Challenge the family to play on a different playground every week. Identify playgrounds at a variety of parks; expand definitions of playgrounds to
include nature trails, a nearby stream, and a bike path.
· Families at play for an hour a day – From walking to gardening, swimming to shooting hoops, make playful movement a part of your family’s day. To get 60 minutes of
moderate activity throughout your day just add 10 minutes here and 15 minutes there.
· Foster a passion for reading – Read to and with your kids. Help children read at every age and every stage of their development.
· Make sleep a priority – Doctors recommend 10-12 hours of sleep a day for children ages 5-12 and 7-8 hours per night for adults. Sleep plays a critical role in maintaining
our healthy immune system, metabolism, mood, memory, learning, and other vital functions.

The post Healthy Kids Day appeared first on Newton PTO Council.

Help a Newton Senior with Spring Clean-up

Newton At Home has volunteer opportunities with Newton Seniors in your neighborhood. Volunteers are needed to assist members with Spring Clean Up of their property. This is a great family activity.

A member of the Village to Village Network, this members’-driven, neighbor-to-neighbor nonprofit organization serves our city’s residents 60 years of age and older.

Consider becoming a volunteer for Newton at Home. Be in touch to support a growing community of neighbors helping neighbors. Visit http://newtonathome.org/

The post Help a Newton Senior with Spring Clean-up appeared first on Newton PTO Council.

Seeking Summer Volunteers for the Waban Library Center

The WLC in Waban is looking for high school students who are interested in working a few hours per week this summer at our small community run library. Work starts a week after school closes, and ends in mid August. This is a good way for students to get involved with community service, and help us at the same time.
The work involves typical library work plus helping us with Story Time and occasional crafts projects with children. A personal interview must be scheduled at a convenient time. Students are encouraged to write to wabanlibrary@gmail.com or call 617- 244-0700.

The post Seeking Summer Volunteers for the Waban Library Center appeared first on Newton PTO Council.

Book Donations Needed – starting April 27th

Start your spring cleaning and put your surplus books to good use to benefit the Newton South’s English Department at NSHS’s annual book sale.

Put your surplus books, in good condition (no mold or water damage, please!), into bags or boxes. Drop off begins April 27th at Newton South. Books must be in saleable condition; not moldy or water damaged.

These categories are especially desirable:

Novels of all sorts
Non-Fiction
Test prep
Cookbooks
Memoirs
Sports
“Coffee table” books

We do not accept:

Children’s books
Text books
Parenting
Health&Medicine
Travel
Erotica

The post Book Donations Needed – starting April 27th appeared first on Newton PTO Council.

Essay Contest for 6th graders

The New England Mobile Book Fair has been a mecca for children’s books for over 60 years. The owners and staff are firm believers in children’s literacy and work closely with schools and libraries to get books into the hands of children all over New England. They also think that it is important to be able to write about books and how they broaden one’s world view.

In 2014 the Book Fair established an essay contest open to all 6th graders in the public schools of Newton. This year they are inviting all of the 6th graders from the Needham Public School system to participate as well.

  • Subject: What book or character from a book has influenced you and why.
  • Who is eligible: Any 6th grade student in either Newton or Needham public schools
  • Contest period: From April 9th until the close of business (6:00 pm) on May 9th
  • Essay Length: at least 200 and no more than 250 words; essays must be received by the book fair by the end of business Saturday, May 9th. Essays must be typed and double spaced. No hand written essays will be accepted. Essays may be submitted by mail to: New England Mobile Book Fair, 82-84 Needham Street, Newton Highlands, MA 02461 or via email to: fran.nembf@gmail.com
  • Prizes: The winner will receive a $25.00 Book Fair gift certificate. Two runners up will each receive a $10.00 Book Fair gift certificate.

By submitting an essay, entrants agree to have their essay posted on New England Mobile
Book Fair’s website and Facebook page. With consent by the entrant and his or her legal
guardian(s), their name will accompany the posted essay. The winner of the contest will be
decided by the staff of the New England Mobile Book Fair and announced no later than May 30th.

Contest Rules and Details are also available on the website, nebookfair.com. You may also call 617-964-7440. Ask for the children’s department.

The post Essay Contest for 6th graders appeared first on Newton PTO Council.

“Farmers to You” Introductory Offer

In celebration of spring renewal, Farmers to You is running its annual “Gift to Give” program. Would you like a gift certificate for $50 of high quality farm/dairy/fishery/bakery-to-consumer groceries? Each family already in the partnership has been given a $50 gift certificate to pass along to someone else who might be interested in trying it out. In exchange, they ask folks to sign on for 6 weeks if possible, to give it a fair go and see if it is for them.

Here’s how Farmers to You works every week: You set up an account on the Farmers To You website, including payment information. You can then put together a shopping cart, like on any other online store, of groceries to be delivered direct from Vermont-area farms (fresh produce and meat), dairies, cheese makers, bakers, fisherfolk, etc. Farmers to You gathers the food and delivers it to communities around Boston. You can pickup from the Newton site host from 1:30-2:30 on Wednesdays, or use the late pickup option until 9:30pm. If you don’t want an order that week, you can suspend your delivery online, or for longer suspensions, give the main office a call. When you do order, Farmers to You asks that you aim for a $40 minimum.

You can find more details at http://farmerstoyou.com/ or in the recent Boston Globe article. Let Emily Case know if you want one of the Gift to Give $50 gift certificates and she will get it to you! Email Emily at emilyelainecase@yahoo.com.

The post “Farmers to You” Introductory Offer appeared first on Newton PTO Council.

Public Hearing on Homebuyer Assistance, April 9

The public is invited to attend the Newton Community Preservation Committee’s PUBLIC HEARING on a request for $1,057,000 in additional funding for the Newton Homebuyer Assistance Program at its meeting on Thursday, 9 April 2015, 7:00 pm, City Hall Rm 204.

The full proposal is online from “Proposals & Projects – Pending” on the CPC program website.

The post Public Hearing on Homebuyer Assistance, April 9 appeared first on Newton PTO Council.

Support the Newton Food Pantry

Shop at Whole Foods in Newton and support the Newton Food Pantry!
Both Whole Foods stores in Newton are running a Register Coupon and food drive for the Newton Food Pantry during the entire month of April.

Cashiers will be asking customers if they want to donate to the Newton Food Pantry when they check out and there will be bins at the stores to collect donations during the month.

The post Support the Newton Food Pantry appeared first on Newton PTO Council.