Laura Peterson
Hello fellow WSPTA volunteers,
I wanted to say thank you for all your help promoting and participating in our programs. The programs committee has dwindled down quite a bit so please consider signing up to help your new programs director, Betty, continue our work. Thank you to all my volunteers that did stick with me over the past 2 years. I would like to offer a special thank you to my program chairs:
Leadership Service Award, Melissa Weinmaster
Scholarship and Scholarship Baskets, Jennifer Ritchie
Essay, Beenish Iqbal
Reflections, Betty Gibbins and Jasmine Fry
Standards of Excellence, Dori Tate
Taking Significant Action, Craig Willis
Newsletter, Kris Redwood
Communications Strategy, Janet Stewart
Advocacy, Heather Lindberg
(Website, FACE, Game Development had no chairs)
Our biggest accomplishment this year was the roll out of the new Award Management System (AMS). We still have a few adjustments to make but overall, it was a great transition that would not have been possible without our staff AMS King, Robert Montenegro.
This year, WSPTA joined fellow student support agencies in sponsoring an award for the OSPI High School Artist Competition. On May 30th, I had the pleasure of awarding Larissa Mauldin from Friday Harbor High School, an award for her extremely detailed ceramic art titled, Broken.
It was great to see many of our award-winning PTA leaders at the awards breakfast at the Spring Conference.
I jotted down these thoughts back in May 2022 after Convention where I was surprised with the Outstanding Service Award but never published them, so I wanted to leave them with you as I close my term as Programs director.
While some stars shine brightly, some are not as vibrant but burn just as long. Others shine in clusters with support from many around them while some are more solitary but still standout in the night sky. You are all stars in my book and I wish I could give you all an award. You all deserve it. Some of you will never know what you mean to the lives of the students, staff, and your community. You may never get the recognition you deserve but keep on keeping on. What you do has impact. No matter how small, it’s what that student or family needed at the right time at the right moment. That is priceless and that is why we PTA.
Laura Peterson, Outgoing Program Director