PTO Passion

Every public and private K-12 school in America has a Parent/Teacher Organization or Association of some kind.  Some of them are very active and some are not active at all.  The parents who get involved with these groups mainly do it because they want to help out their child's school.  There are a few who get into these organizations because they want to be in charge and have some kind of say so over what goes one.  Basically, they like to be on top.  All parents who are involved with the PTO at their child's school are passionate in one way or another, and I have been a witness first-hand to that passion.

I am an officer with the PTO at my kid's school and we had a Board meeting yesterday.  As always we have several issues to discuss and several things that needed to be worked out.  We never have enough time to get everything done.  Yesterday one of the things we talked about was Business Partners for the school.  The woman on the Board tasked with the responsibility of getting business partners is a very straightforward, kind, and caring person.  Yesterday I learned how hard she has truly been working on trying to get business partners so that even in these tough economic times when schools and PTO groups are cutting back and trying to limit fundraisers our kids and our teachers will still be taken care of.  When she gave her report yesterday she set a goal of getting 100 business partners and she has been working 60-70 hours a week at accomplishing this task.  She has been doing everything from trying to get gift cards for teachers, to securing rewards for students, and much more.  She doesn't want the PTO to have to pay a whole lot out of their budget for anything, and I think that is very admirable.

What really got me is when she was speaking about how she learned how much teachers have to pay out of their pockets she started to cry.  You could hear the concern in her voice and see the passion in her eyes for what she was trying to and is doing.  I was very moved and touched by that and I though it was worth mentioning.  There are not too many people out there who would get that involved with the PTO or their child's school, whether they are working or not.  She has taken on a big role and she has come up with so many ideas and I applaud her efforts.  We need more passionate and driven people like Mrs. SP in thee world.  If we had more people like her than perhaps the world would be a much better place.