Gillispie Gives Back

As a follow-up to last week’s Community Service email, please note the following current opportunities for engaging with our internal and external community:

1.       Weekly Story-Time – Beginning this Wednesday, April 22, you can join us for Story-Time at 4:00 p.m. These will be live opportunities for younger children to listen to stories read by older children, and they will also be recorded for future viewing opportunities. This week, listen in as Cooper Armstrong entertains us! You will receive an invitation with a link to these Story- Times.

 2.       Showing Our Love to the Residents of Chateau La Jolla – Our older adult neighbors are in such a difficult spot, not being able to leave their residence or to have visitors. Gillispie and Chateau La Jolla have long had a beautiful relationship, which we want to continue building during this time of physical distancing.  Beginning this week, students are asked to write letters, poems, draw pictures, make cards, etc., and send these to Gillispie School (to my attention). We will deliver these letters once weekly, and hope that our students show their creativity and big hearts as they share their artistic skills with our older friends.

 3.       We invite everyone in our community to participate in the Gillispie Gives Back Food Drive. Giving back is something Gillispie families do so well – our most recent Blood Drive and Bake Sale underscores this truth! Under normal circumstances, 14% of San Diegans are food insecure, which means they do not know where their next meal will come from. That translates to 450,000 people, of whom 177,777 are children. These are not normal circumstances. We are offering a virtual opportunity to help the Jacobs and Cushman San Diego Food Bank. We know that these are uncertain and challenging times and that families are experiencing them differently. Please feel under no pressure to participate. This opportunity is meant to be a vehicle for coming together as a school community to support the broader community. 100% of contributions will go directly to the San Diego Food Bank.

Gillispie has set up our own virtual shopping site on the San Diego Food Bank website: https://www.fooddriveonline.org/sandiegofoodbank/index.php?s=GillispieSchool . Once there, you can hand-select the specific items you want to purchase. Can your children “earn” money or points to be directed towards this food purchase? Below are some suggested ways to engage your children in “earning” food-purchasing dollars:

• Pennies/dollars per pages read
• Pennies/dollars per jumping jack, jump rope, or other activity
• Pennies/dollars per household chore
• Pennies/dollars for kind words to siblings (!!)
• Share any other creative ideas you have with us!

Thank you for considering participation in these community-building opportunities!

Warmly,

Debbie