MIMS Chinese New Year: Volunteer! & other updates

MIMS Chinese New Year festival is coming up on February 1 – that’s only TWO weeks away! Remember to invite your friends, family, and community.

Tickets & Wristbands

You can still buy discounted wristbands and tickets, as well as pre-order your t-shirts. Read more here or go directly to the store to order. Those will be available to pick up T-Th, Jan. 28-30, from 7-9 am and 3:30-6 pm.

Donate to and Sponsor the MIMS Chinese New Year Festival

It’s not too late to donate or ask for sponsorships. You can read more about how to do that  and get the forms or contact the MIMS PTO fundraising team with ideas.

Would your club or organization like a table? Contact Kelly Opot.

Volunteer for the MIMS Chinese New Year Festival

Now it’s time to start volunteering your time and energy to make this the best year yet. We still have a few positions open for lead volunteers. If you’re interested in that, please contact Amanda Chambers, our CNY festival lead, directly. You can also use the Sign-Up Geniuses below to help out.

MIMS Chinese New Year: Wristbands, Tickets & T-shirts

Can you believe that the MIMS Chinese New Year festival is just around the corner? This festival is our biggest fundraiser and biggest event of the year, so we hope you will all come out to enjoy, support, and volunteer to make it amazing. Plus: invite your friends – all are welcome!

PTO will be selling wristbands and tickets, as well as CNY t-shirts, online, at school the week before the event, and at the CNY festival.

Wristbands

Wristbands include unlimited access to the climbing rock wall, inflatables, and petting zoo.

  • Early bird price through January 10 – $20
  • Pre-sale January 11 – 26 – $25
  • Festival Day – $30

Tickets

Purchase tickets for food, face painting, crafts, games, and dunking booth.

  • Tickets are 12 for $10 during early bird, through January 26
  • After early bird, tickets will be $1 per ticket

Other items

You can also pre-order t-shirts (children’s, unisex, or women’s sizes) or DVDs of the performances.

Updated 1/13/20: added t-shirt and DVD information

January & February Sociables Available

Upcoming Sociables for January and February

Welcome back!  If you’re looking for a fun way to start off the new year, we have spots available for the following sociables.  All sociables will remain open until they sell out or the day of the event and can be purchased at: https://qtego.net/qlink/mimspto.  

Item #124 – Dumplings! Dumplings! Dumplings! (Adults Only) – Saturday, January 11 – $55/Adult

Item #125 – Mediterranean Dinner (Adults Only) – Thursday, January 16 – $35/Adult

Item #127 – Winter Spectacular Ice Skating Sociable (Kids and Parents) – Monday, January 20 – $25/Person

Item #128 – MIMS Dragons Love Tacos for Pre-K – 3rd Grade (Kids Only) – Tuesday, January 21 – $15/Child

Item #161 – 5th-8th Grade Game-a-Palooza (Kids Only) – Friday, January 24 – $20/Child

Item #135 – Trail Hike in Memorial Park for 6th Grade and Up with Ms. Veneziale (Kids and Parents) – Saturday, February 8 – $25/Person

Item #137 – Tang Yuan (Sticky Rice Balls) With a Twist (Kids and Parents) – Saturday, February 22 – $50/Child and one Adult and $10/Additional Child

Item #138 – Men’s Poker Night (Dads Only) – Saturday, February 22 – $40/Dad

Item #139 – Central Texas-Style BBQ Dinner (Adults Only) – Sunday, February 23 – $50/person – Only a few spots remaining!

Item #141 – MIMS 3rd Annual Bagel Bolt Mile Kids Fun Run (Kids Only) – Saturday, February 29 – $30/Child – Only a few spots remaining!

Need a reminder on how to do Qtego? Here you go.

Spirit Wear Store – Now Open

The Spirit Wear Store is now open!

Check TODAY to see what MIMS Uniform items you need!!

Link to Order Uniforms

Deadline to order – January 19, 2020 midnight.

Uniform Pick Up – All spirit wear items will be available to pick up on February 1, 2020 during our New Year Festival.

Size Chart – Please consult the detailed size charts for all items at
http://mimspto.org/activities/pto-activities/spirit-wear/

Important Note – All sales are FINAL, NO EXCEPTIONS !! So please measure and make sure you’re ordering the correct size for yourself and you child! We order from the vendor exactly what you order, there are NO CANCELLATIONS, REFUNDS or EXCHANGES.

Please Remember to order a warm cover-up for your kids, the classrooms are often very chilly!

If you know any new families, please share this information with them so they don’t miss out !!

Spirit Night: Mendocino Farms

The Spirit Night for Mendocino Farms (Uptown Park location only) is coming up on Jan. 27. For those who don’ know yet, the way it works is that you go eat at the restaurant (maybe even a big group of MIMS friends?!) and the restaurant donates part of what you spend to MIMS PTO for our kids.

Two important things to know about the Spirit Night at Mendocino Farms:

  • We get 50% of what you spend. That’s a BIG deal – most places only give 20%.
  • You have to bring a flyer with you and give it to them. The flyer is attached here AND it’s going home in Tuesday folders.

Do this now: mark your calendar for Jan. 27 and download and print this flyer: Mendocino Farms Spirit Night for Mandarin Immersion School

Chinese New Year: Sponsor & share the donation form

In recent years, Houston ISD has experienced major funding cuts, so funds raised from individual donations and business sponsorships are relied upon heavily to fund classroom supplies, access to e-learning programs, teacher appreciation events, and so much more.

The Chinese New Year Festival held at MIMS each year is a large fundraiser for our school. If you would like to sponsor this year’s festival at one of the attached levels or double your donation with an employer matching contribution, please let me know. Your donation will 100% directly benefit MIMS.

Donating is easy and tax-deductible. Donations can be made online at http://mimspto.org/ or by making a check payable to “MIMS PTO” and writing “2020 CNY” on the memo line. Checks may be hand delivered to a PTO Board Member or mailed to MIMS PTO, Attn: PTO Treasurer, 5445 W. Alabama, Houston, TX 77056. The MIMS PTO is a 501(c)(3) organization, and a receipt with Tax ID will be provided upon request.

Thank you in advance for your consideration!

 

January 2020 Dates

Just a quick update on some dates for January 2020 – you can view or subscribe to the full calendar here.  Do you have dates to add to the calendar or items you’d like to see addressed at the PTO meeting? Send an email to secretary@mimspto.org to let us know.

Jan. 10 – MIMS PTO General Meeting AND Spirit Morning with Coffee-Q – get your tacos and coffee (or buy some for our faculty and staff) from the Coffee-Q truck and then come join the PTO meeting to hear about and get involved with Chinese New Year, spring fun run, and more.

Jan. 15 – Elementary UIL info session to learn about how to get your kids involved with UIL

Jan. 17 – Early Dismissal & last date to submit materials for your yearbook ad

Jan. 20  – MLK Jr. Holiday – no school

Jan. 27 – Spirit night at Mendocino Farms

Jan. 31 – Fú Fri-Yay at Whole Foods

and don’t forget: Chinese New Year Festival on Feb. 1, 2020.

Celebrate your kiddos!

Birthday Marquee

Want to give your kid a thrill on her or his birthday? Wish them happy birthday on the school marquee!

Please donate $30 on the PTO donate button in the store tab.

When you donate, please indicate that the donation is for the birthday marquee, so that our treasurer can account for the donation

Please screenshot your receipt and contact marquee@mimspto.org with your child’s name and birthday. You’ll get a confirmation email to confirm your purchase.

Download [381.24 KB]

2019-2020 Sociable and Silent Auction Catalogue

Download [100.72 KB]

Auction Winners & Sociables: Time to get sociable

Sociables & Auction Update

Note: We’ll update this post regularly to keep you in the loop on where we are with current sociables and items.

Congratulations to this year’s Live Auction Winners!

Parking Space #1 – Chang Family
Parking Space #2 – Pinkston Family
Parking Space #3 – Tan Family
Morning Announcements with Mr. Ying – Tan and Chen Families
Naming Rights for the Cafeteria – Tan Family
Naming Rights for the Kinder Hallway – Welsh Family
Naming Rights for the 1st Grade Hallway – Millner Family
Naming Rights for the Library – Crouch Family
News Anchor Mystery Reader – Pinkston Family
VP for a Day – Merlan Family

Sociables still available

If you haven’t had a chance to purchase any sociables (or you’d like to buy more!), it’s not too late. All sociables will remain open until they sell out or the day of the event. Open sociables can be purchased at: https://qtego.net/qlink/mimspto.

How to buy

We’ll be using Qtego again to let you buy sociables and to bid on silent auction items. Before you can bid on sociables and auction items, you’ll need to register your credit card with Qtego. Note that even if you bid on items last year, you’ll still need to register your card again.
Get the details below or download the Qtego Instructions document.

Get Started

  1. Pre-register your mobile number in advance at qtego.net/qlink/mimspto. Everyone must register, even if you used the site for last year’s event.
  2. During registration, you will be asked to provide your credit card information that will be used to purchase sociable and silent auction items.
  3. Once you register, you will receive two (2) text messages welcoming you to the event.

Purchasing Sociable and Silent Auction Items:

You can purchase or bid on items through your mobile phone, iPad, or computer.

Mobile Phone:

To purchase a sociable or bid on a silent auction item from your mobile phone, reply to the text message you received from Qtego and follow the instructions below OR you can select the blue URL link in your second text message to make purchases or bid on your personal bidding page through your smart phone.

iPad or Computer:
  • First, register your phone at qtego.net/qlink/mimspto.
  • Select “SIGN IN” and enter the personal PIN you received in your second text message.
  • The last four (4) characters of the link you received in the second text are your PIN.
By Text Messaging:

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If you would like to…

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…you should TEXT

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Example of Your Text

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PURCHASE a sociable

BUY ITEM# QUANTITY

BUY 101 3 Buys 3 of Item #101

BID on a silent auction item

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ITEM# BID

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102 75
Bids $75 for Item #102

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Set a MAXIMUM BID for an item so you can bid automatically

ITEM# BID M

102 300 M
Qtego will bid on Item #102 automatically until the item reaches $300

Get a DESCRIPTION and CURRENT PRICE of an item

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ITEM#

102
Gives the description and current bid for Item #102.
Through Your Personal Bidding Page:
  1. Click on the blue hyperlink in your Qtego text message.
  2. Press “Auction Items” for silent auction items or “Instabuy” for sociables
  3. Tap the item photo and submit your bid.

Questions? Please email Lisa Barrow at fundraising@mimspto.org

Original post on how to host:

Interested in hosting a sociable or donating an auction item for this year’s Fall Festival? Please  submit your information by Friday, September 27.
Don’t know how sociables and the auction work? Learn more now and then sign up to host!
Sociable Donation Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3NhXYm9-D4VKWNhQZC8R4_r_ftiZEuKcuoudJT4U9LjEuIA/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1
Auction Donation Form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdH_peu2ZAyqTuRvObgclgJwnpPdttU2XO6rMlr4WBcunmUmw/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1

We welcome the 2019-2020 PTO Board Members

*Drum roll….*

President – Nhi Le
Elementary Vice President – Kelly Opot
Middle School Vice President – Felicia Ziegler
Secretary – Libby Ingrassia (Bergman)
Treasurer – Jose Gonzalez
Parliamentarian – Derek Sirmans
Historian – Nissa Simpson
Festival Chair – Amanda Chambers
Corporate Fundraising Chair – Lisa Barrow
Community Fundraising Chair – NO CANDIDATE (Will run election at the beginning of the school year).
Shared Decision Committee Member – Wendy Chung

The individuals elected will take office on July 1, 2019. Their term will be until June 30, 2020.

Wishing the 2019-2020 PTO Board all the success!

Updated Student Drop-Off/Pick-Up Procedures

Procedures

1. Please follow the directions of traffic flow and be courteous when the lanes merge.
2. Pedestrian traffic is heavy from 8:15 AM to 8:45 AM and from 3:40 PM to 4:10 PM. Please drive slowly
and be ready to stop for pedestrians.
3. Drop-off
a. Please drop off your child only at designated area:
i. Park by the curbside in front of the school, or
ii. Park in the Parent/Visitor Parking area.
b. Please do not park in the middle of traffic flow to drop off your child.
4. Pick-up
a. Please form a line at the curbside in front of the school and have your placard ready.
b. Please move your vehicle forward and fill the empty space before picking up your child.
c. If your child requires additional assistance to buckle-up, please plan to park in the Parent/Visitor Parking area and pick up your child at the cafeteria door.
5. The parking lot next to our building is designated for teacher parking between 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
6. If the parking lot is full, please utilize street parking around campus and respect the city regulation.

Important Hours

1. School opens from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The front office is temporarily closed from 3:30 PM to 4:15 PM
for dismissal. There will be no access to the building before 8:00 AM or after 5:00 PM.
2. Student hour is from 8:30 AM to 3:50 PM. Students need to arrive classrooms by 8:35 AM before tardy is
marked. Late pick-up fee applies after 4:10 PM.
3. CIASP parent pick-up from 4:15 PM to 6:30 PM at the front of the school. Enrichment only pick-up at the
side of the building from 5:00 PM to 5:30 PM.
4. All club sponsors sign in at the front desk (after 4:15 PM) or in the cafeteria (from 3:40 PM to 4:10 PM).
Club students are dismissed at the cafeteria door with sponsors. Club visitors need to sign in before 5:00
PM or contact club sponsors if it is after 5:00 PM.

DropOff & PickUp Map

PTO Annual Drive

By contributing to the PTO Annual Drive, you help us meet our school’s needs that are outside the scope of their budget. When you go a step further and volunteer to help with events—or join our board— you set a fine example for our students to follow, and greatly encourage our teachers and staff.

Donate to PTO