Dear Members,
I am so honored to have been elected at the convention in May to serve as your WSPTA President for the next two years. I wanted to take a moment before the end of what has truly been an unprecedented school year to acknowledge that many PTAs and families have endured loss and struggles of all kinds during this pandemic.
However, I have been inspired by the PTAs that have stepped up this year to support the basic needs of their community by procuring grants for direct assistance, opening food pantries and clothing banks, and providing family education events on mental health and so much more. PTAs have reexamined their role in the community and reinvented events and activities. I know you are a proud PTA member, too. I hope that you will renew your membership with your local PTA after July 15 (when the 2021-2022 online join option is back online) and continue to support their work and that of Washington State PTA and National PTA. We’ve gotten through this past year and shown that together we can do great things for kids.
Even though the school year isn’t quite over, the newly elected WSPTA Board of Directors is already hard at work planning their PTA support and advocacy activities for the next year. The board met virtually June 4-5 for a retreat to set our operational goals for 2021-22. I want you to know that this group of elected volunteers is extremely impressive with the depth of their PTA knowledge and their passion for the PTA mission! I will have more updates on our goals in the future, and you can read them on the WSPTA Blog.
I’d like to close by thanking the outgoing 2019-2021 WSPTA Board of Directors whose term ended May 31. Collectively they put in over 24,500 volunteer hours providing service to WSPTA and their work is deeply appreciated! I would also like to thank the thousands of local PTA and council leaders who continued the work of PTA to make every child’s potential a reality this year. Our leadership theme for the next year is Be the Change, after the quote attributed to Gandhi that we should “be the change that we wish to see in the world.” We don’t have to look very far to see PTA leaders and members being the change in their communities every day. Keep doing what you’re doing – it’s truly making a difference!
Have a safe and restful summer!
Nancy Chamberlain
WSPTA President 2021-2023