Thank You!

I would like to thank Mrs. Wang for bringing cookies, pastries, and candy for the girls to have with their bedtime story last night. The food was wonderful, and they all loved it. We did bedtime story a little differently last night in honor of Halloween. We started off with the normal bedtime story "If You Give a Pig a Pancake". It is a cute book and many of the girls remembered it from childhood. After our discussion of that book, we also took turns telling scary stories that we knew. Many of them focused on personal experience or stories associated with NCSSM. We told enough stories to officially creep ourselves out. It was a fun twist on our bedtime story tradition. And thanks again to Hannah's family for providing snacks and helping out with this event.

Paint Fight and State Fair

We had 2 exciting events in the last day--a paint fight and our trip to the state fair.
The trip to the state fair today was fun despite being a little soggy. There were 7 girls and 4 guys from our brother hall that went. Everyone seems to have had a good time, but I managed to get no pictures because of the rain and not wanting to get my camera wet. If any of the girls who went got some I will try to post them later. From all reports, rides were ridden, animals were seen, LOTS of food was eaten...all the typical fair fun.
The paint fight, where the girls run around in a field and fling paint at one another, was yesterday. Despite a lot of excitement about this event, only 5 girls were able to come out and participate. Below are before and after pictures...I will leave the in between action to your imagination.

Uni Pride Day

Today is Uni Pride Day on campus. Everyone on campus was asked to dress up as nerds and then come out to the men's soccer game tonight to be judged as a hall, enjoy performances by student groups like pep band and the cheerleaders, and to cheer on the team. Here are some pics of the nerds on 3rd Bryan:

State Fair

Parents,
Don't forget that you are invited to come to the state fair with us this weekend. We will be leaving school at noon on Saturday and will be returning at about 7pm. Please let me know if you would like to come with us. Hope to see all of you soon!

IM Ultimete Frisbee Champions

The girls of 3rd Bryan are the official IM Ultimate Frisbee Champions!!
Yesterday we played and beat 2nd Bryan in the semifinal game. Toay, we beat 1st Beall 6-4 to win the championship game. All the girls who came out and played were awesome! Everyone was REALLY into the game, our brother hall came to cheer, and even people walking by on the street stopped to watch. It was intense, but in the end, we came out on top.
After our win we celebrated in the lounge with Domino's Pizza. And then, after check tonight, our brother hall, 2nd Hill, came to the lounge to serenade us. They sang "We Are the Champions" by Queen, "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, and the Pokemon theme song. Not sure what their third song choice had to do with us winning, but I have to say it was amusing. Everyone on hall was super excited about our victory, and is now determined that we need a repeat championship for the next IM sport. Until then, they will just savor being the "Ultimate Champions" (HAHA. Get it? Ultimate frisbee, but also just ultimate!)

Scarowinds!!

This weekend, 3rd Bryan invaded Charlotte! 11 of the girls on hall went to Charlotte and Scarowinds (the Carowinds Halloween themed event). We all had a great time on the trip. The Gupta family was kind enough to host us for dinner on Saturday. We have wonderful food, lots of healthy snacks and pizza, and plenty of entertainment with the trampoline and badminton net they had in the back yard.
I think Scarowinds gave everyone a good fright, but not enough so that is wasn't fun. The decorations and people in costume were amazing, and apparently the haunted houses, trails, and mazes were sufficiently scary, though I personally can't attest to that since I was too afraid to go through any of them.
After Scarowinds, Geri Mullinix, Amanda's mom, and her family let us spend the night at their house. The girls had more snacks, Halloween themed of course, and played games before going to bed. The next morning, we had a wonderful, healthy breakfast before we headed back to school.
I am so grateful to the two families who hosted us. This trip was a wonderful bonding time for the girls who were able to go, and without these two families, we would not have been able to make the trip. I honestly could not do my job without parent support, and it means so much to me that 3rd Bryan parents are so wonderful and supportive. Thank you, parents, for all that you do.
P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures of this trip. I some how didn't take many, no one took their camera into the amusement park because they didn't want to lose it, and the girls haven't sent me any that they took of other parts of the trip. I promise we had fun even though we don't have photographic proof. :)

H1N1 Vaccine Consent Form

Hi 3rd Bryan Parents!! This is just a reminder of the email I sent to you earlier about the H1N1 Vaccine. Each girl on hall has received a hard copy of the H1N1 vaccine consent form and should be bringing it home for you to look at and sign over extended. I ask that you please sign and return the form, even if you do NOT want your daughter to get the vaccination. That way the school will at least know that you were informed about the vaccine and chose for your daughter not to have it. Thanks, and enjoy the upcoming extended weekend!

Halloween Dance

On Oct. 31st the NCSSM Student Activities Board is hosting a Halloween Costume Dance. Jennifer Ashe, the SAB coordinator, is looking for volunteers to help chaperon and work at the Halloween Dance. If you are interested in helping out that Saturday night, email ashe@ncssm.edu to ask for more details.

H1N1 and Flu Update

The following email was sent out by Dr. Barber to the students and staff today. The two attachments she references can be found on http://babylon.ncssm.edu/ Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this topic.

Dear NCSSM Students, Faculty, Staff and Parents:

One thing you can say about the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics is that we are tough. We are still having incidents of Influenza Like Illness (ILI), but Thursday was the first day for several weeks where no student with ILI was sent home by the clinic and the number of students at home today for ILI has been reduced to12. Although we are weathering the storm, we have a long ways to go, so don’t forget to wash those hands.

Thanks so much to our students! I know many of you didn’t want to go to the Health Clinic because you were afraid to be sent home and maybe fall behind in your classes. However, you did it with very few complaints which is probably the reason the ILI spread was reduced in our community. For those students who are still making up work, please let your teachers, counselors, advisors, student life instructors, work service supervisors, Dr. Warshaw, Mr. Clayton, Dr. Boarman or myself know if you need any support/help. We are all here for you.

Faculty and staff, don’t forget we can get the ILI also, so take care of yourself and self isolate, if necessary.

There have been many questions about when we are going to give the seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines. We plan to give them both in our NCSSM Health Clinic. Thanks so much to the NCSSM Pandemic Preparedness Team. Due to their efforts we will have the new recommended temperature control refrigerator in the clinic to house the large volume of vaccines we are expecting to receive. Thanks also to Dr. Starnes, our Medical Director, and her team who are ready to administer the vaccines when they are received.

This is the plan:

· Seasonal Flu Vaccine – As I told you in my last update, the seasonal flu vaccines have been ordered. When we checked again last week, Moore Medical told us the good news - we are on schedule to receive the vaccines in October but they could not tell us a specific day. So, we are going to be prepared when the vaccines are received. When we placed the order back in the summer, we ordered enough for those parents who had paid, but we also ordered extra. Therefore, if there are parents who are interested in their child receiving the seasonal flu vaccine on campus and haven’t paid, please contact Lorna Lester at 919-416-2800 or lesterl@ncssm.edu and she will send you the necessary.

· Free H1N1 Vaccine for all Students and Staff – As you know the H1N1 vaccine is free. We are definitely on the list to receive the vaccine, hopefully in October, and administer it in the NCSSM Health Clinic to both students and staff. We are following all of the requirements sent from CDC and the State and Durham Health Departments.

Parents must first read the attached “WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW” form. Second, print, complete, sign and date the attached consent form for your child. The parent has the choice to give consent or not give consent. The consent form can either be mailed back to Laura Ramsey, NCSSM Clinic, Durham, NC 27715 or the parent or student can give the form directly to Sabrina Fuller at the Bryan SLI Office. Parents can find the same consent form in three different places - 1) attached to this e-mail; 2) on at-a-glance; or 3) with your child. A hard copy will be given to each student for them to take home over the October 16, 2009 extended weekend. This way the parent could fill it out and send it back by their child. With this many options, it is with great hope that any confusion about not receiving the H1N1 consent form will be significantly minimized.

Staff should send an e-mail to Connie Boyce, Director of Human Resources or Harry Tucker, Director of Campus Resources, if they plan to take advantage of the H1N1 vaccine here on campus.

Please visit the CDC’s 2009 H1N1 influenza web site at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/ and also http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/parents for more information, especially for parents.

All of the UNC system schools have to report weekly to UNC –General Administration their incidents of ILI. These are the numbers NCSSM has reported - First week – 0 students; second week - 3 students; third week – 11 students; fourth week – 33 students; fifth week – 35 students; sixth week – 29 students.

Again, thanks to everyone for your support in accepting the ILI challenge. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Potluck Update

3rd Bryan Holiday Potluck!
Date: 12-12-09
Time: 1:00 pm
Place: Woolworth Room, ETC Building, NCSSM Campus, Durham, NC
RSVP to Linsey Morrison at morrisonl@ncssm.edu by Dec. 1st!
Please let me know how many members of your family will be in attendance (not including your daughter who lives on 3rd Bryan) and what food you would like to bring to the potluck.

The first annual 3rd Bryan potluck is officially scheduled for Saturday Dec. 12th! I hope you will all be able to come. This is a great chance for all of you to meet other parents on hall, see your daughters, and eat a great meal! We have scheduled the potluck purposely for the same day as the semi-formal dance. The semi-formal dance is a big event where students get a chance to dress up and celebrate together. For many people, it is like a mini-prom. Students will find dates and go out to a casual dinner together before the dance. We hope that many of you will come out for the potluck and then stay to help your daughter get ready for the dance and take some pictures of everyone in their nice clothes.

Military Care Packages

I wanted to tell you about a community service project our hall will be working on later this month. In cooperation with 1E2E2D (another girls hall on campus), we will be creating care packages to send to people from NC who are actively serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some of you may know that my uncle is in Iraq, and when I spoke to him last he told me that many of the men in his unit (an army reserve unit from NC), NEVER receive packages. We have decided to support some of those soldiers who have no one else to support them by sending them packages with snacks, toiletry items, entertainment items, and homemade cards. We could use your help with this project. To fill these boxes, we need donations! I have attached a list of items that would go well in boxes. In addition to these items, our hall will be baking homemade goodies to go in the boxes. If you can donate any of these items, or, if you don’t have time to shop, money to buy these items, we would greatly appreciate it.

It is my goal to fill 10 boxes (12” x 12” x 5-1/2”). This will take a lot of supplies, so please give what you can. Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks in advance for your help!

Military Care Package Suggestions

Entertainment Items:

Magazines (People, Star, National Enquirer, so forth)

Puzzle Books (crossword, word search, etc)

Movies

Playing Cards

Snack food that won’t spoil or melt:

Cereal bars/granola bars

Pringles

Cookies in individual packages

Nuts

Chewing Gum

Snack Mixes

Candy (not chocolate because it melts)

Dried Fruit

Mints

Rice Krispy Treats

Jelly Beans

Snack Crackers (in individual packages)

Snack Cakes

Toiletry Items (especially small sizes and common items most people use):

Lotion

Shampoos

Conditioner

Mouthwash

Floss

Lip balm

Toothpaste

Toothbrushes

Anti-bacterial liquid soap

Wet Wipes (EVERYONE asks for these)

Notes or Cards (with first name only and no return address, just in case)