Prom!

I know it seems early, but prom is coming up quickly. Prom is Saturday, April 17th this year which is a mere month and a half away. That means you might want to go ahead and start talking with your daughters about their plans for the night.
For those of you don't know, NCSSM's prom is held at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science in Durham. It is a great, unique setting for the event, but it also brings up the problem of students having to get from campus to the museum.
The school does provide loops on that day to popular places for dinner and then loops to the museum. but many students prefer another option. The extended before prom, students are allowed to bring their cars to campus, park them, and turn their keys in to the front desk. On the day of prom, students can use their cars to go to hair and make-up appointments, get to dinner, and then drive themselves to the museum. After prom, students have to turn their keys back in to the desk and leave their car parked until the next extended when they must take the car home. Another popular option is for parents to come to Durham that day to help their child get ready for and get to and from prom.
Many students also want to do after prom activities. Though we do have activities on campus after prom, some students want to stay off campus, go home with friends, or participate in numerous other activities. This is allowed, but there is some paperwork required of parents to assure that the student has your permission.
I know this is a lot of information to process, and you probably have questions. No worries! Before long, you will be receiving a whole packet of information from the school via email. If you still have questions after you get that packet, I encourage you to email me or call me so we can figure out the answers.

NCSSM World Record Food Drive

I wanted to give you all an update on what is happening with the world record attempt coming up in March. On March 20th, NCSSM will attempt to collect more than half a million pounds (509,148 lbs. to be exact) in 24 hours. We have done a lot of planning and work to get the event organized and we are hoping to break the Guinness World Record.
There are lots of opportunities for people to get involved. Here are just a few of them.
1) We are currently running a virtual food drive through the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC where people can donate money online. Each dollar donated will be converted to 8 pounds of food that will be delivered to the school on the 20th. You can donate at here through March 12th.
2) You can sponsor a food drive in your town and then deliver the food here on March 20th. Consider asking your coworkers, neighbors, local schools, or other community organizations to donate. If you come to the school on the 20th you will have a chance to enter a raffle to win lots of great prizes or to receive four 1-day passes to Disney. See www.ncssm.edu/fooddrive for details.
3) Consider volunteering during the day to help collect food, record how much is collected, write receipts, or just generally help out. If you are available and interested in volunteering, email NCSSMFoodDriveVolunteer@gmail.com.

For any questions about the food drive, you can call Sue Anne Lewis at (919)416-2814 or email NCSSMFoodDrive@gmail.com. This is a great event. Please consider helping out any way you can.

Thoroughly Modern Millie

"Thoroughly Modern Millie", this year's musical production on campus, was this weekend and several of the girls on hall were involved in the show. I got to see part of it and wish I could have seen the rest because it was fantastic. I want to give big shout outs to all the girls on hall who were involved. Below we have pictures of the lovely Ashely Teal and Brooke Kopelakis who both had speaking parts in the play. Danielle Enrique played piano, Kathleen Lan was in the orchestra, Amanda Ackovitz was the stage manager, Jenny Gough was the scenic artist and light board operator, and Macey Matthews was on the build crew. (Sorry if I missed anyone. These are just those of you I could find listed in the program or knew were helping.) Everyone involved in the production did an amazing job and deserves to be recognized!

Thank Yous

I just want to take a minute to say thank you to the Breedlove family for sponsoring the February birthday break. The students loved the cupcakes! The celebration really brightened their day.

I would also like to say thanks to the Browning family for donating gift cards to hall. It is so nice to have a gift card on hand so that if I need to pick up snacks or supplies for an activity at the last minute I don't have to worry about it.

I appreciate the support of all the parents on hall. Without you, we couldn't do all the fun things that make life on hall happier. Thanks again!

What's Coming Up in February

February looks to have great potential and is shaping up so far to be an eventful month. In addition to our regularly scheduled events like bedtime stories, food runs, and birthday breaks, we have a lot of special events this month.
On Sunday Feb. 7th, we had a hall party for the superbowl. We met in the lounge to eat pizza, chips, and brownies and had a little "girl talk" before the game. At 6:30, we went to the lecture hall where we met our brother hall and few other halls to watch the game on the projection screen. Everyone had lots of fun.
This coming weekend, on Saturday night, we have the Sadie Hawkins Dance on campus which should give students a chance to get dressed up and have a great time. This weekend is also the musical production "Thoroughly Modern Millie". Many of the girls on hall are involved in some way and the rest of us look forward to seeing the show.
And, of course, next Tuesday, trimester 2 exams begin. Exams are always a stressful time for students, but we have scheduled snacks and stress relief breaks which will hopefully get the students through.
After exams the month wraps up with trimester break and the beginning of Miniterm. Miniterm is always a little more relaxed on campus since many students are away on trips and those who are here are pursuing topics of their own interest. Though the students work very hard, it usually turns out to be a fun, unique experience for them.
I should mention one other HUGE event that happened on campus in February. At the beginning of this month we had our annual campus wide state health inspection. This is a difficult time for students because they have to put extra effort into housekeeping and keeping the hall and campus clean. I am proud to say that 3rd Bryan did an AMAZING job of cleaning our hall and keeping it clean. We passed the inspection with flying colors!!
So, despite a little stress and a busy schedule, February should be a great month.

Looking Back to January

I can't believe another month is gone. January was a great start to a new year. Everyone on hall came back from winter break refreshed and ready to get to work and finish 2nd trimester.
January happened to be "National Get Organized Month" so we did several activites on hall to help get ourselves more organized. We read "The Bernstein Bears and the Messy Room" and talked about the advantages and emotional effect of organization, we celebrated "Clean Off Your Desk Day", and we learned to make post-it note calendars to help with scheduling.
We had some fun too though. We took a hall trip to Southpoint to see a movie and shop, we went Ice Skating, and had several hall dinners and food runs.
All in all, we had a great time, learned some, and got another month closer to 3rd trimester.

Where Are My Posts?

Hey All! So right after I posted the February calendar I posted several updates to the blog about past events, upcoming events, the World Record Food Drive, and other things. When I came back to post something earlier this week, my posts were nowhere to be seen. Did any of you who read the blog see them? I can't figure out what happened to them-if they got posted and deleted, if they never got posted, if there was an error when i tried to save them...who know. Anyway, I am sorry for the lack of updates. I am going to try to recreate them and post them again along with some new updates. And in the future I will try to improve my blogging skills and hope that this never happens again.

February Calendar

Here is a copy of the calendar of events. I hope February will be lots of fun on hall.