Harvest Festival is almost here, and
WE NEED YOU TO VOLUNTEER!

Carnival Games, Jumpy House & Slide, Obstacle Course, Snow Cone, Popcorn & Cotton Candy Machines all need volunteers to make the Harvest Festival a success!

Click this link to sign up directly or contact Candice Wheeler tanwheeler@gmail.com to volunteer at this event!

HARVEST FESTIVAL INFORMATION
DATE: Saturday, October 19th
TIME: 2:30 to 5:30 pm
WHERE: Juana Briones Elementary School
WHO: Children of all ages & abilities, and their families!

Donations & recycling

Green Team Up-Cycle Drive and Student Council Coat & Food Drive!

As a part of our amazing Bobcat community, we are focused on teaching our kids the importance of going green and helping others in our community.  This Harvest Festival we are making sure we do just that by having donation drives. Have your kids help you go through your closets, toy storage, cupboards and pantries this weekend!

1. Prize Drive.  Donate gently used toys to be re-used as Carnival Game prizes!  Children’s books, board games, and small toys (smaller than your hand – party favors, bouncy balls, figurines, hot wheel cars, etc.).

2. Halloween Costume Share Faire.  Donate good condition costumes and accessories and get a “new to you” up-cycled costume!

3.  Used Spiritwear.  Outgrown spiritwear still in good shape?  Recycle it at our station.  Drop it in the recycle bin.  If you see something you like, take it!

Collection boxes for these items will be outside the main office at drop-off and pick-up this Monday Oct 14th and Friday Oct 18th.  Please contact the Green Team if you have any questions: brionesgreenteam@gmail.com

4.  Coat Drive.  Donate your outgrown winter coats to our Briones Student Council Coat Drive!  Gently used adult and child sized coats are being accepted through Friday Oct 18th in your child’s classroom or bring them to the Coat Drive rack near ticketing at the Harvest Festival on Oct 19th.  

5.  Second Harvest Food Bank Drive.  The Harvest Festival is a special event where our Juana Briones community comes together to create memories.  We know the high cost of living in Silicon Valley can force some families to sacrifice putting food on the table in order to pay for critical expenses, making memories take a backseat to simply surviving.  Let’s help our neighbors by providing healthy food they may not normally be able to afford.  Please bring your non-perishable food items to the collection bins near ticketing during the Harves t Festival on Oct 19th.  You can also donate online at Second Harvest Food Bank Harvest Festival Campaign.

Examples of healthy non-perishable foods: Canned foods with pop-top lids including:  Tuna, salmon, or chicken; Fruit in its own juice or water; Low sodium vegetables; Soup, stew or chili. Also:Peanut butter; Olive or canola oil; Spices (cinnamon, chili powder, cumin, salt- free spice blends); Low sugar whole grain cereals; Nutritious snacks (granola bars, nuts, dried fruit); Bottled water.

BEAT THE LINES!

Avoid long queues at the Harvest Festival and buy your Wristbands (for $15) and Harvest Dollars online before the event.  Deadline for pre-orders is October 17th.  The price of Wristbands will be $20 at the event.

Wristbands: Buy your wristband in advance and save $5 if your child will want to participate in these activities: the Climbing Rock Wall, the Inflatable Obstacle Course, Jumpy House, Inflatable Slide and Run for Fun relay races.  Purchase Wristbands Here

Harvest Dollars: Harvest dollars are the only currency accepted at all the food concessions and carnival games during the Harvest Festival. Avoid long lines and pre-purchase Harvest Dollars online before Oct 17th or buy them at the event at the Tickets desk.  Purchase Harvest Dollars Here

See you and your family there!

This year’s Great Gatherings brochure is here!

Great Gatherings are community-building activities that take place throughout the year, hosted by both Briones PTA and Briones parents. When you pay to participate in a Great Gathering, your money is donated directly to the Briones PTA. In fact, Great Gatherings is the largest PTA fundraiser of the school year! 

Your child was sent home Friday with your copy of the brochure describing all the GREAT GATHERING events (or download the PDF).  Now it’s time to go through it and earmark some of the parties you, your family, and your kids plan to attend!

Download a QR reader/ scanner app on your smartphone and see you at the Harvest Festival, where you can sign up for the Great Gatherings events! (Click to learn more!)

Looking forward to having you and your family attend the biggest FUNdraiser of the year!

This is the biggest Bobcat event of the year, you don’t want to miss it! (And you can order tickets online now!)

Saturday, October 19th
2:30 – 5:30 PM

What to expect at the Harvest Festival?

• A Pumpkin Patch
• Run for Fun! will host organized activities on the playground 
• Tons of Carnival Games! 
  • *Duck Pond * Baseball Toss * Cross Bow * Can Can * Tip the clown * Milk Can * Ring any Bottle * Plinko * Dart Balloon
• Rock Climbing Wall
• Extreme Obstacle Course 
• Gentle Jump house for gentle jumpers 
• Giant Slide 
• Face Painting! Bubble Fun!  
• Carnival Foods, Pizza, and Delicious Tacos & Quesadillas to eat!

(Click to learn more!)

All this fun means: WE NEED OUR BOBCAT COMMUNITY TO MAKE IT A SUCCESS! Please sign up to volunteer! There are many slots to choose from! Bring a friend, aunt, uncle, grandparent to join the fun! 

UpToUs Members click here to sign up.
Non-Members use this link instead.

The award-winning Palo Alto Children’s Theatre is back at Juana Briones this fall to produce another outreach play!  

This year’s play is “The Stinky Cheese Man,” a rapid fire vaudeville-style romp with the not too pleasant smelling Stinky Cheese Man as the star of the show!  This hilarious play toured nationally with Dallas Children’s Theater in 2005 and has since enjoyed over 150 independent productions across the United States, with a brief stop in China! This is a golden opportunity for our students to work with theatre professionals in the comfortable setting of their own school.

All children who audition receive roles in the play.
Open to all 3^rd – 5^th grade students. 
Audition Dates: Tuesday, October 15^th, 2:45 – 4:30 pm for 4^th & 5^th grade;
and Wednesday, October 16^th, 1:35 – 2:45 pm for 3^rdgraders. 

Those with conflicts can come either day. Michael Jorizzo directs; the music director is Marie Finch. Performances Dates: December 12 – 14