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Tag: Flood

TGR “Almost Ablaze” Flood Fundraiser Movie Event

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead

When Annie Guerrero, mother of an MCS Upper Elementary student, came to us in October and presented her idea to screen an extreme skiing movie in order to raise funds to offset the losses from the flood, we loved her suggestion but had no idea where to begin. We were busy moving the classrooms, settling them in, communicating with parents; Robyn, the Head of School, was knee deep in choosing new tiles and cabinets, carpets, and baseboards. Fortunately, without much help from us Annie took her idea and saw it through every step of the way until it was realized on Wednesday, December 3.

 

Annie’s main goal was to provide MCS with a fundraiser at no cost to us. She and her husband Ryan Carlson began contacting and getting sponsors to help pay for the cost of screening the movie “Almost Ablaze,” by Teton Gravity Research. After meeting with many theatres around town, Annie finally locked in the Salt Lake Film Society’s Tower Theatre for December 3, again turning to sponsors, including her and Ryan’s business, The Wasatch Team-Windermere, to cover the costs. Once the date was set, Annie, with a small crew of dedicated parents, began a grass-roots marketing campaign, with PR blasts going out to publications from Whitney Cripe, mother of two MCS Elementary students, and the posting of professional-quality posters around the Valley and at ski resorts as well as on social media sites. Annie also began contacting potential donors for raffle items, eventually getting enough 2-for-1 ski passes from Powder Mountain to give every attendee one. Through individual, direct contacting she collected a total of 75 raffle items; among them, Skull Candy headphones, avalanche shovels, helmets, ski passes to local resorts, and a gear bag.

Annie’s drive and determination to make this event work was truly remarkable. She also met with us weekly to set up the ticket sales system, and to give us the latest updates. Her behind the scenes work became more and more apparent as the date approached and we received more and more raffle items and sponsors. We want to thank those parents who helped Annie with all of those efforts over the past several weeks: in addition to Whitney Cripe, Jennifer Dahl Lewis, who sent a KUTV news crew to do a followup story on MCS and the restoration efforts; Corey Lewis; Marie Bosteels; Becky Taylor; Tom Binegar; and Whitney Miller, who provided many unique raffle items on the night of the event.

The evening itself was a huge success. Through the sale of movie tickets, raffle tickets, and donations, Annie and this core group of parents raised almost $5000 for the school. More importantly, it was a memorable community event. Rob Cordova, parent of an Upper Elementary student, provided much entertainment as the Master of Ceremonies. He built up excitement surrounding the raffle and had all the winners dancing a crazy dance when they won. The students who helped deliver raffle items served as great examples of the kind of education that we provide. Five of the athletes featured in the extreme skiing movie attended the event to sign posters; that was more than the number that attended the first premiere of the movie! Again, that was due to Annie’s enthusiasm and effort; she contacted each athlete directly via Facebook.

We want to thank the athletes who came: Tim Durtschi, John Collinson, Todd Ligare, Dash Longe, and Dylan Hood. We want to thank the companies that donated raffle items: Skull Candy/Smith, Rossignol, anon. Helmets/Hitcase, Hot Chillys, Voile, Snowbasin, Brighton, Scott, Saga, The North Face, and AceCamp. And we want to especially thank the sponsors for their generosity: Teton Gravity Research, Powder Mountain, Vintage Road Real Estate Fund, The Wasatch Team-Windermere, Guaranteed Rate, Discrete, and the Tower Theatre, for providing the venue.

Above all, we want to thank Annie Guerrero for her vision and for her perseverance and commitment in taking each step to make that vision a reality. We are so grateful for her efforts and for the contributions of all of the MCS and Greater Salt Lake communities.

Written by Ramira Alamilla

 

ALMOST ABLAZE – Teton Gravity Research

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

Awarded “Film Of The Year” at the 2014 International Freeski Film Festival, TGR’s Almost Ablaze is a global odyssey combining state-of-the-art cinematography and the most progressive riding on The Planet. Experience a new level of sensory overload as each athlete is wired for sound, immersing the audience completely in the moment. Watch as athletes push the edge to realize a heightened state. Special screening at the Tower Theatre at 7:00pm on Wednesday – December 3, 2014. [ read more… ]

Every ticket holder will receive a Powder Mountain 2-for-1 Day Pass at the event.

Movie trailer here: www.tetongravity.com/films/almost-ablaze

On October 10th, just before 9 PM, a 48″ water main pipe broke on Foothill Blvd sending over 2.5 million gallons of water down 1700 South. The Montessori Community School was one of the unfortunate victims of the flood. The lower level classrooms, and the maintenance room were flooded and nearly 100 students have been displaced. It will take 6 to 8 weeks for all repairs to be completed. Please join us for our fundraising event featuring the Teton Gravity Research Movie: Almost Ablaze. All ticket proceeds will go to the MCS Flood Relief Fund.

 

 

                                                                               This event has ended
                                                                      This event is no longer available
We recommend pre-purchasing your raffle tickets. 
See some of the raffle items available here

Almost Ablaze – December 3, 2014Doors Open at 6:45pm for Raffle

Tower Theatre
876 E 900 S
Salt Lake City, UT 84105

 

Things are coming together nicely here

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

Hello MCS Families,

Things are coming together nicely here at the school. We are still working out some details but are really looking forward to the students return on Monday. Again, we can not express enough our appreciation for all of the offers to assist. And, we want you to know that the teachers at the school have worked tirelessly to prepare temporary classrooms, to support one another, and to keep the energy positive and uplifting. Our teachers are amazing!

  • We are looking for an old washer and dryer that can be used to clean our mops and some carpets that were submerged in water. Please contact the office if you are getting rid of any old machines that the school could use temporarily.
  • Thank you to all who attended Parent Teacher Conference last week. We were so excited to launch our online record keeping system, Compass, which will allow you to get activity reports about your child’s school experience. However, with all that has happened with the flood and the temporary displacement of classrooms and students we have decided to put a temporary hold on the activity reports. Thank you for your patience. As mentioned previously, every one of our classrooms are being effected in some way and we feel it is most important that the teachers energy be placed on providing structure and support to the students. Thank you for your understanding.
  • The Silent Journey is postponed until further notice.
  • We anticipate that the Halloween Carnival will still happen and more details about it will be available Monday.

Enjoy the remainder of your unexpected break in this most beautiful fall weather.

With deep gratitude,
MCS Administration

Trying to keep more mess out of their classroom

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

Margaret and Laura trying to keep more mess out of their beloved Uinta classroom!
Ruby has been a most wonderful photographer and documenter!
Brandi feeling overjoyed about the set up of the temporary Lower El classroom at the church.
Laura in the new Uinta and Arches space.
Joshi displays some of the Arches work that survived the flood.
Look at the beautiful mural in the background! Bonnie has been hard at work.
An energetic and helpful MCS student cheers for the churches offer of space.
Kay and Lorena setting up the Magnolias temporary classroom in the Toddler Moons space.
Kate and Cinthya hard at working helping their fellow teachers set up and clean up.
Dear MCS Families and Interested Community Members,
WOW!  The outpouring of love and concern is truly incredible. A huge thank you to our enthusiastic staff who have assisted in the clean up, transport, and set up of new classroom space.  We are very excited to get back to it on Monday.  We miss the children very much.
As you can see from the photos above, we are making a lot of progress here at the school.  The teachers are working harder than ever and their love of the students is evident in their care and attention to setting up the classrooms. The teachers will be sending detailed emails so that you know what to expect for Monday. Thank you for your patience as we prepare.
A few recent updates:
  • The road is still not fixed at the school’s entrance.  We are hopeful that it will be fixed by the weekend.
  • At this time the building has no heat. (We are grateful for the warm weather!) We hope to have a temporary boiler in place by Monday. It will be a smaller unit that will heat our upstairs.  We will have to purchase a new boiler and hope that the transition will be as unobtrusive as possible.  We have some temporary heaters to supplement the heat from this smaller unit until the new boiler is in place.
  •  We are working on a list for volunteer opportunities.  So many of you have been so generous with your offers to help.  Up to this point we have not known areas where you can assist.  However, we anticipate that we will need assistance in the future.  Once we have created this list we will share it with you.
With thanks,
MCS Administration

MCS SCHOOL CLOSURE

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

Dear MCS Parents,

Thank you all for your ongoing support. We are grateful for all of the offers of help and assistance. The cleaning crew is still here and they are asking that we stay out of their way while they clean, sanitize and move furniture in preparation for the building repairs. We appreciate everyone’s willingness and ask for your continued patience as we determine our needs. If/when we determine that there is a way for parents to assist us we will let you know.

At this time we have been told that it will take possibly up to 8 weeks for the Lower Level to be repaired and able to accommodate the children. We have been most fortunate to secure temporary classroom space for the Lower and Upper Elementary students and the Middle School students at the All Saints Episcopal Church with whom we share a parking lot. Staff are working to clean that space and will spend time this week creating classrooms there. The Magnolias students are being moved to several different classrooms throughout the school. (Arches, Uinta, Wasatch, Oquirrh and Magnolias parents – a more detailed email will be coming separately to outline the details of your child’s temporary classroom.)

We are still unable to fully assess the damage and/or inventory all of the ruined materials and furniture. Unfortunately, this process is much more time consuming and lengthy than we had originally anticipated.

The clean up crew is directing us to carefully sanitize all of the furniture and materials that we want to take from the Lower Level for the students to use during their temporary relocation. Currently our power is coming from a generator. We hope that we will have permanent power by this evening but are unsure. Our boiler (which provides our heat) has been partially covered with water and we are not sure the extent of its damage. Specialists have been working on it since Saturday but had to wait until the motor, etc. had dried out before conducting more extensive testing. The road right in front of our parking lot entrance is torn up and we may have to determine a plan to redirect our school traffic. There are many people working in many capacities both inside and outside the school. At this time we do not feel that it is safe for the students to return to the building. There are too many variables that are still “undetermined.” We look forward to the students returning when we feel that the building is safe for them and when we have more control over who is entering and exiting the building.

SCHOOL WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK. We are also working on a plan to determine how we will make up the missed days.

We understand what a huge inconvenience a school closure is and are very sorry to put our families in this position. Some of our staff members who are not needed in the relocation and set up are willing to provide child care to families who are in need. Please contact the office for names and numbers as needed.

With thanks,
MCS Administration