Sight for Serenity

Sight for Serenity

For this year’s annual student-lead service project, Pine River National Honor Society (NHS) is proud to announce they are teaming up with the Leadership Class and the Youth Advisory Council (YAC) and other local organizations to fundraise for fellow Pine River student, Serenity Aug. Serenity is a fifth grade student that suffers from Oculocutaneous Albinism, a disease that severely limits her vision to 20/200. This means what the average individual sees at 200 feet, she can only see at 20 feet. Not only does this disease drastically reduce her sight, there is a possibility that it may worsen throughout her life.                      

There is now hope for Serenity through incredible technological advances that will allow her to finally see with near perfect vision. The Canadian company, eSight, has designed cutting edge glasses that help those with vision loss in restoring their eyesight; however, with this technology, also comes a hefty price tag. To acquire these glasses for Serenity, it will require a $15,000 fundraising effort to obtain enough for the glasses.  Since the goal of this group is help raise as much of the 15,000 needed, its members are working on a variety of projects in the local community, such as a spaghetti dinner, a silent auction, a magic show, and a color run in the spring.

If you are willing to or able to help, we would greatly appreciate it. You can find out more about eSight by visiting their page at www.esighteyewear.com. To make a donation for Serenity you can go to http://giving.esighteyewear.com/serenity-aug or send a check to Pine River Area Schools ℅ NHS, 17445 Pine River Rd. LeRoy, MI 49655.

For more information on how you can help, please contact Mason Powell, NHS President (mpowell@pineriver.org), Spencer Haskel, NHS Secretary (shaskel@pineriver.org), or Alexis Beebe, Leadership President (abeebe@pineriver.org).  Thank you all for reading and, in advance, your help and support.

What an AMAZING afternoon at the elementary school for My Gal and Me.  We had over 150 moms, aunts, grandmas, etc. come and enjoy the afternoon with their loved ones. Thanks to all that came. Thanks to the teachers and staff for helping the day run smoothly, thanks to Norman's Farms for donating over 300 pumpkins for our activity, and a huge shout out to the ladies of the PRPTG that organized the event. :). PRide!

NHS, Leadership class, FOMS, and Osceola YAC

The President of the Pine River High School National Honor Society, Mason Powell and Leadersip Class President Alexis Beebe, representing other parent and student groups as well met with Serenity Aug, fifth grade student, this morning to present a pledge to her to assist in raising the $15,000 she needs to  acquire a set of glasses from Eisight.  The students will release a press release soon announcing their intentions.

Update, Pine River Area Schools—Schools will re-open Monday, October 10, 2016

Pine River: Due to a large volume of water in the high school kitchen, Pine River Area Schools was closed on Friday, October 7, 2016, but will re-open on Monday, October 10, 2016. “Although it may not be business as usual for food service,” Superintendent Matt Lukshaitis spoke minutes ago, “We will be open for school with full K-12 programming on Monday, October 10. We needed the day today to figure some things out and get the drying process going in the high school kitchen.”

Lukshaitis went on to explain, “As a result of water damage, we will have to prepare meals in the middle school and our lower elementary kitchens and stage some temporary coolers and freezers on-site, but with creativity we have already begun laying out a menu to ensure our students are fed breakfast and lunch. So, with the extra effort of some key personnel, we will be open Monday and we will be able to serve breakfast and lunch to all.”

The Pine River superintendent added, “It took some time—about three hours last night and six hours today—but after meeting with the roofers, the architect, our own Building and Grounds supervisor, our Food Service Coordinator, and our Board President, Jim Peterson, we were able to trouble shoot enough to set the remediation in motion in the high school kitchen and organize a plan for the food service needs of our student body.”

The water from recent rains built up and seeped into the plaster and lathe, stucco ceilings from the roof above the high school kitchen on Thursday night. At 5:30 p.m., water started ruining the tiles in the north hallway and by 10:00 p.m., the water had found its way to the kitchen ceiling.

Lukshaitis concluded, “The rain came down heavily the past few weeks and so we ran into a little hard luck. We live in Northern Michigan. We learn to shrug these things off. I know we have a great staff here and a terrific student population with parents who understand that when you are investing in a major repair, you might run into some minor set-backs. We will overcome this. School will be back on track Monday; we may need to transfer food from our smaller kitchens to our largest cafeteria instead of the other way around, but we can manage that for 2-4 weeks. Our main focus right now is getting our schedule back on track and our students back into the classrooms.”

K-3 Reading Focus Paying Off

Students at Pine River's Lower Elementary are starting the day with 120 minutes of reading instruction each and every day.  It's a planned out, designed, and implemented programming choice on the part of teachers and administrators and it seems to be making an impact.  Teachers report more engagement, quicker transitions, and faster skill acquisition.  Parent volunteers have been a big key, and teachers are planning in teams and seeing real results.     Mrs. Peterson's room refers to reading team as a "party" and the students appear to be ready to read!  If you are interested in volunteering to help in one of our Elementray classrooms, please contact the elementary office.