Schools
Forget Atlantic City! PTO's Casino Night to Fund Cedar Hill Library Makeover
Cedar Hill PTO depending on Saturday's fundraiser to contribute to $100K project to update school library.
It's been decades since the library at the Cedar Hill Elementary School has been updated, and the school's PTO is planning an ambitious project to make the center more modern and welcoming to students.
"This room probably hasn't changed in 40 years," Christina Ehret, co-president of the Cedar Hill Parent-Teacher Organization, said during a recent tour of the library at the kindergarten through grade 5 school.
To raise the money to carry out is planned renovations for both decor and equipment, the PTO this Saturday will throw its second as a major fundraiser in its campaign to raise $100,000. The money would be spent for a comprehensive update of the 2,100-square-foot library that parents already have envisioned by working out details with school officials and a designer.
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After having saved $30,000 from organizing a successful Casino Night in 2008, the PTO has organized a new version of the event, with a Monopoly theme, planned for 7 to 11 p.m. this Saturday at the on Madisonville Road.
Casino Night is a fun way to raise needed funding for a project has been long-awaited in an era of reduced funding for the school district, Ehret said. The PTO will begin a capital campaign immediately following Casino Night to get as close as possible to closing its goal, she said.
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"It's such a fine evening," Ehret said of Casino Night. Tickets are $75 per person, and — besides making a contribution to the library project — also include wine, beer and other drinks, as well as a pasta bar and other menu items, she said.
Ticket and ticket information is available by emailing Elaine Edge.
Ehret said the organizers obtained a license from the state for the evening. Participants can wander among gaming tables to play blackjack, poker, roulette and other games of chance. The "casino money" they win later can be applied toward a special casino raffle which features a grill worth $1,700, she said.
Attendees will also have the chance to win everything from pizza to a new iPad 2 to gift baskets, N.Y. Yankee tickets and other prizes, she said.
The last Casino Night raised $50,000 for the PTO, although $20,000 was spent on other contributions to the Cedar Hill School, Ehret said. Similar success would go far in paying for the proposed library project, she said.
The planned library improvements — most of which PTO volunteers would like to see carried out this summer — would prioritize a bigger story time area with benches and new computers that would be placed on a large desk area where children could work on joint projects, Ehret said.
New carpeting, repainting, a new circulation desk with more storage space for library media specialist Connie Rose and moving and anchoring shelves against walls are some other major aspects of the overhaul, Ehret said.
The library now has outdated desks, old carpeting and freestanding shelves that are too high for younger children to reach books on the higher shelves, Ehret said. "It just needs to be easier for the younger children to browse and find what they are looking for," she said.
Another part of the project includes updating reference materials, Ehret said. "We want to make sure it is done in a timeless, functional way," Ehret said of the planned redesign. "It will be so much more comfortable."
"I think it's fantastic," Cedar Hill Principal Joseph Mollica said of the PTO's concerted efforts to update the library.
"It's something that's long overdue, and I think it will really affect the sense of what we want our learning environment to really be," Mollica said.
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