Parent/Teacher Association
     GEMS parents are actively involved with their children's education.  The local PTA helps out with book fairs, health fairs, jog-a-thons and other events throughout the school year.  They also are involved with the GEMS Accelerated Reading program as well as helping with the coordination of many volunteers in our school. See further information about the National  PTA .  
 
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Box Tops
by Naomi Finnegan, co-PTA president
  
     Recently Lynda Stamper, who has been the PTA's Box Top Coordinator for the past several years, passed the torch, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for all of the time and energy that she dedicated to this project. It is so greatly appreciated. Heidi Strohmeyer has graciously volunteered to take over this project, and in the interim, I picked up the box tops and trimmed them for the recent deadline. In doing so, I learned several things that many people are not aware of and I felt it would be helpful to everyone if I passed along some "box top tips." Here they are:
* The box tops must be trimmed around the dashed line before they can be submitted to the company for reimbursement.  I am not sure how many hours Lynda must have accrued over the years, but I can tell you that just trimming this latest submission took me over six hours. It is very helpful if you trim them before you send them to school. I find it helpful just to keep a pair of scissors in the kitchen and a Ziploc that I slip them into as I get them.
* Many people, I have found, are unaware that the box tops have expiration dates. I was very discouraged that I had to throw away over $200 worth of box tops that were past expiration.
* Besides those box tops past their expiration, many box tops had been torn off, rather than cut, and the expiration date was torn off. Because the expiration could not be read, these too had to be thrown away. This amounted to over $70.
* There are various kinds of box tops - the regular type, bonus box tops, and super box tops (worth 30 cents or more). They are all helpful to us.
* Betty Crocker coupons are not useful for this program.
*  Not only can box tops be found on food packaging, you might also see them on coupons and on the receipt that you get with your groceries at times. Keep an eye out for them.
* If you would like a complete list of products that contain box tops, you can go to http://www.boxtops4education.com/AboutBoxTops/Products.aspx to see the list of products. This Web site will also give you information on the Box Tops Marketplace and Box Tops Visa card.
     Feel to share this information with everyone. Even people without kids in school buy groceries and we welcome any box top donations we can get! Besides the classroom containers, the box tops can also be dropped off at the GEMS office or in the GEMS containers at the local grocery stores.
    And if you are curious about where the box top money goes, the money is sent directly to the school (the PTA only supplies the coordinator for the program) and in recent years, the money has been used for books, tests and prizes for the Accelerated Reading program.
     I hope that you find these tips helpful to you and others. Thanks for all of your box tops donations and happy clipping!