Thank you to every person who helped out with the Howl on Friday (before, during, or after). It speaks to the amazing Tennyson parent spirit that we can get 200 + volunteers ... we should all be proud. Even losing an hour of set-up time (due to fire alarms), didn't delay the event thanks to the amazing group that was setting up.

There are not big enough words to describe the thanks that need to be extended to Ward Stirrat and Borja (pronounced Boy - ya, by the way!) Fisher Brown. For many years (at least 6??), these two have steered this incredible ship. Ward will be moving on next year as his youngest will leave the school. Thank you for the many memories, Ward ... you will leave a legend behind. We hope a team will step up next year to keep this 28 year tradition alive.

Okay, this is my 9th year at Tennyson and I have NEVER seen such an amazing display of carved pumpkins for the carving contest. WOW! Congratulations to every student who participated. I am so glad that I was not a judge.

Here is a list of the winners:

Intermediate (Grades 4 - 7)

Scariest:  Thor Younger (Div 6) & Ali Esteki (Div 3)

Most Gruesome:  Oliver Read (Div 5) & Caitlin Carey (Div 5)

Funniest:  Alex Clegg (Div 1) & Paris Mutual (Div 5)

Most Original:  Tayte Brown (Div 1) & Kailey Farrell (Div 3)

Judge's Choice: Sydney Porter (Div 4) & Adelaine Anaig (Div 3) & Maddi Cook (Div 3)

Primary (Grades K - 3)

Scariest:  Aliya Karsan (Div 9) & Tudor Jinga (Div 8)

Most Gruesome:  Cordell Jordi-Lenover (Div 13 ) & Joshua Read (Div 17)

Funniest:  Henry Goldman (Div 9) & Neva Aitken (Div 13) & Nicholas Grob (Div 7)

Most Original:  Amy Lloyd (Div 10) & Ruby Boyd (Div 11)

Judge's Choice: Christopher Porter (Div 12) & Anna Griesser (Div 9)

Tigers were everywhere!! Over 70 Tennyson Tigers ran in the final Cross Country meet today - the District Meet.
I am still waiting on final results but rumour has it that Skyla won second place for Gr 5 girls - the best ever finish for a tiger at a district meet! Thank you to Coach Chris for his endless enthusiasm - we know there is a team of parent volunteers behind you (and thank you to them all!) but this would not be the same without Coach Chris!

The 5th (I think) annual Tennyson Pumpkin Patch was held today. Over 250 pumpkins were scattered in the field ... it was quite a sight! Thank you, once again, to Michael Tudorie for sourcing, donating, and delivering the pumpkins (thanks to Gordon Fretter of Fretter Design for the truck and driving!). The kids always love it. Thank you to Mme Christine's Div 1 students who unloaded 250 pumpkins and spread them around and to the parent volunteers (especially Toni and Jenn who were there ALL day!).
The rain stayed away until the very end which was a huge bonus. 

Next month, we have the opportunity to vote in municipal elections; these elections include the vote for school trustees. In the 2011 local elections, only about one third of eligible voters in Vancouver cast a ballot. While voter turnout has been declining at all levels in recent years, I hope that the dialogue begun during the job action will continue and perhaps inspire more voters to cast their ballots.

In Vancouver, there are nine trustees (plus one student trustee) on the board of education, and on Thursday, October 23, we will be hosting a forum for candidates running for these positions. We have invited all candidates, and are asking you to send us the questions you'd like to ask them. With many more candidates than positions, we realize that we cannot have an open floor with questions for each to answer, and thus we are going to select a range of questions from those submitted to us to ask of the candidates during the forum. Beyond that, we are going to invite the candidates to respond to the remaining questions in writing. Finally, we are ensuring that our schedule will allow Vancouver parents the opportunity to "scrum" with the candidates, asking them questions individually.

The forum will be held at John Oliver Secondary School Auditorium:

530 East 41st Avenue, Vancouver, BC 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Thursday October 23rd, 2014

Doors open at 6:30 and close at 10:00 pm beginning at 7 pm. Childminding will be available. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend! And please send your questions for the candidates to us at: chair@vancouverdpac.org, by Wednesday, October 22.

The annual Kickstart fundraising campaign had already raised an amazing $10115.00. Thanks to those of you who have donated. This is the only tax deductible means by which you can donate to Lord Tennyson PAC this school year. We ask each family to consider donating $50.00 or more, if it is within your means. More information and the donation form can be found at www.lordtennyson.ca/kick-start-campaign.html 

While we do prefer cheques to avoid service fees, you also welcome online credit card donations through PayPal. The link for this at the bottom of the Kickstart page. Thanks for considering this request. 

We are still in need of a class parent for divisions: 2, 6, 10, 13, 15 
Please contact your classroom teacher or Mme Lavoie.
Merci!

Be on the lookout for the VSB Zero Waste Initiative’s recycling and composting bins throughout the school.  Our student ambassadors will be educating the students over the next week or so on how to properly dispose of unwanted waste in our new bins.  We are excited to be one of the first Vancouver schools to implement this great initiative.

And as a friendly reminder, don’t forget to place your used, clean beverage containers in the blue bins at the Halloween Howl!  Our Zero Waste Committee will be returning the used containers for a refund to continue to support our Zero Waste Initiatives.

A huge thanks goes out to new Tennyson parents Dreama Lee and Tai Scott who have decided to head up the Zero Waste Committee at Tennyson this year. Thank you Dreama and Tai!

In an effort to further our Zero Waste initiatives at Tennyson we have joined the Waste Reduction Week beginning Oct. 20-26 by taking the Recycle My Cell Challenge!  

Beginning Monday, October 20 we will have a box for collecting unwanted, old and out-of-use cell phones, smartphones, wireless PDAs, pagers as well as their batteries and accessories outside of the main office.

Collections will be taken between October 20 to November 21, 2014.  

In addition to doing a good thing for the environment, we could also win some great prizes: $500 for our school to use for green initiatives, and as a participation prize, we will receive $1 for every phone we collect and recycle through the Recycle My Cell challenge!  These funds will be used to further our Zero Waste initiatives at Tennyson.

So please bring in your unwanted items and ask friends and family to donate to this great cause.

For more information visit:  http://wrwcanada.com/recycle_my_cell