Well it seems I was too pessimistic in reporting that Eastern Middle School had failed in its effort to get its playing field renovated courtesy of the Kellogg’s Plant-a-Seed contest. As it turns out, they were among the winners!
Hello Eastern Middle School community and friends,
Late yesterday, I received an email from Kellogg’s saying that Eastern Middle School — got that drum roll going? — has been selected as one of 30 fields in the country to receive field improvements/ renovations! Yep, we did it! We went from a late night (and practically forgotten) nomination whim, to a semifinalist in practically last place out of 100 fields with only 24 votes in early May, to ninth place and 23,554 votes only three weeks later! Who would have guessed? Well, Ben Yeatts-Lonske certainly did, with his incredible and inspirational vote-by-vote tracking of the situation, and Aileen Hilliard and Judith Arbacher and Beth Sperber Ritchie and Susan Thomas and many many others who Ben cited in his June 2 wrap-up email as having sent out reminders, emails to other lists, etc. Congratulations everyone, and get ready to enjoy a brand new field! Kellogg’s will probably organize a celebration once the renovation is done (and if they don’t we will). But, let’s organize something sooner at the field in the next week or so to celebrate this win. Any suggestions?
If you did contact any listservs and community or personal contacts, please spread the news that Eastern is among the winners! Also, because school is out for the summer, please share the news with any EMS families you are able to contact who might not be on this listserv or might not have a computer.
Let’s keep this momentum going for making Eastern a stellar example of all things cooperative and scholastic, with parents, teachers, and students working together for the single purpose of providing the best education possible for our kids who, afterall, is what this is all about.
Jim Laurenson
Congratulations to the Eastern Community!
Sad that this “red zone” school (and my alma mater) had to work so hard for $15,000 of field improvements while across town the Walter Johnson football field will see $1.6 million in field improvements this year for the football field alone.
First, the WJ football field will have a brand new all natural grass with an underground sprinkler system installed. Then, after that is used for 3 months of football season, the natural grass and sprinkler system will be ripped up and artificial turf will be installed.
Agreed. In “wealthy” Montgomery County no less. Oh and don’t get me started on school sports. Can *anyone* explain to me how we got to the place where sports participation is tied to school, whereas in other countries school is, well, school and sports are done on a club basis? Really, I would love to know if a book has been written on this. Does it go back to the founding of Harvard and the whole mind, body, spirit thing?
If you google “origin of school sports” you’ll see that it started as a British phenomenon.
Ironically, when I announced the Kellogg’s win to the BOE the other night, the only other public commenter was someone arguing against the cost of the WJ boondoggle. Now if MCPS would give just a small portion of the WJ field funds to Eastern, we could get that 8th period back!
To all Eastern Middle School field supporters,
The local organizers of the Eastern Middle School Plant-A-Seed field competition are having a little breakfast celebration this Saturday morning, Aug. 1, from 8 AM to ?, at Eastern’s field, and all are invited. It’s BYOFF (Bring Your Own Frosted Flakes!) or if you prefer we’ll have some FF’s, milk, etc. too for a small donation (please RSVP per below; excess donations will be added to the field funds). If you choose the latter, we’ll have disposable bowls/spoons, but please try to bring your own to reduce costs and help the environment. Also, bring a blanket or lawn chairs to sit on.
We’ll also have a multi-generational pickup soccer game, so wear appropriate attire if you want to play, and bring both a very dark and a very light t-shirt to distinguish teams.
And bring ideas for how you think we should use the Kellogg’s money, whether/how/who to lobby for additional funds/donations, etc.
To give us a sense of how many are coming, etc., please email Jim Laurenson at jimlaurenson@yahoo.com by 8 pm Friday with (1) how many will be in your party and (2) whether you’ll either BYOFF or have the FFs we bring.
Hope to see you Saturday, but if you can’t make it, we’ll probably do this again in the fall and certainly after the renovations are complete.
And please forward this to whatever email lists you were harassing about votes!
The EMS Field “Booster Club”