Hello fellow caregivers! Please read this (admittedly long) email as there are some important items to note—specifically the requested RSVP for our PAC meeting with special guest speaker, the upcoming family dance, and a message from DPAC (District PAC). Thanks!

January Kind Minds
January Kind Minds, presented by The Kelty Foundation, has kicked off! Each student and class will be learning about healthy minds, ways to address and acknowledge emotions, and resources that can help children and parents when needed. We are so grateful to The Kelty Foundation for providing us with the tools that we and our children can use.

Special RSVP Request: January PAC Meeting
The January PAC meeting is being held on January 22 from 6-8pm. Please note the earlier start time to allow enough time for our special guest speaker, Sheldon Franken, a VSB School counsellor and owner/workshop facilitator for Inquiry Adventures presenting this great parent workshop tied into Kind Minds Month: The Beauty of Coping: Coping Strategies to manage anxiety and other big feelings.

This workshop explores how anxiety and big feelings impact the brain and how they can be experienced in the body and through behaviours. This workshop also equips participants with practical tools and strategies for supporting child and parent well-being using the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) ACCEPTS Model of coping. Designed for teachers and parents, this session will delve into the ACCEPTS Model—a set of six coping skills (Activities, Contributing, Comparisons, Emotions, Pushing Away, Thoughts, and Sensations) - and explore how these skills can help us cope with anxiety and other big feelings.

Although we normally do not require pre-registration for PAC meeting attendance, we ask that you RSVP by midnight on Monday so we can ensure we can prepare for enough room, enough pizza, and enough child minding, and enough time for Q&A. Please sign up today, whether attending in person or via Zoom!

RSVP: Jan 22
Zoom link
Draft Agenda
Zoom Meeting ID: 308 129 8330 Passcode: 962479

Family Dance January 31
In partnership with The Kelty Foundation and Kind Minds Month, our school family dance will be held on January 31 after school hours! The Confi-DANCE features tie-ins from Kind Minds Month and the return of the amazing DJ Rock'N'Beau to get families moving and having a great time!

The dance for Kindergarten to Grade 3 takes place from 5-6:20pm, with Grades 4-7 dancing from 6:30-8pm. Please note we have a maximum capacity of 250 people in each session, so get your tickets early to avoid disappointment! At least one parent per family is required to attend if your child(ren) are coming.

Note: we will not be able to offer this dance without some great parental volunteers; if you can help out on January 31, please sign up on the volunteer form! We'll need help with setup, decorations, tear down and more:

Get your tickets to the dance for $1 per person, with funds raised on tickets being donated back to The Kelty Foundation.

Winter Fun Lunch Orders and Volunteers
Fun lunch for the winter term is open for ordering. We're still looking for parent volunteers for lunch distribution for a few days this term; this is usually a 30-45 minute midday volunteer opportunity, and a chance to surprise your child by being at the school!

Fall Fund Drive Total
Thank you once again to everyone who contributed or spread the word about our fall fund drive. Thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of our school community, we were able to surpass our target, and raised a whopping $35,670! This will allow us to fulfill the request for thirty new laptops—enough for a full class. These will be a shared resource amongst classrooms.

Lunar New Year Celebration
Thanks to your Diversity Team, David Livingstone will be hosting a Lunar New Year celebration for the students on January 31. UBC Kung Fu Association will be performing the Lion Dance and you may order a Lunar New Year meal for your student via MunchALunch.

Messages from DPAC
Did you know that our district (VSB) has its own PAC? The Vancouver District PAC (DPAC) has several important items they'd like you to be aware of, including the Inclusive Education Report, Clean Air in Schools, a petition to try to save Fleming Elementary School's basketball courts from commercial redevelopment, and more. Please find these important stories on the DPAC site

Save the Date: Movie Night
Please mark your calendars for February 13 at 5:30pm, our second family movie night. Please note that we will need volunteers to help set up and take down this time or the event will not happen. We also ask that everyone who comes brings a responsible adult and minds their children to ensure that everyone can enjoy the film. Thank you! Ticket sales will be announced shortly.

Have a great month!

- Your PAC Exec Team

Thank you for your overwhelming support of our fall tech drive! Together we've raised $19,520!
We're still working toward our goal of $30,000; if you haven't contributed yet, don't forget that every amount, big or small, brings us closer to our goal! 

Donate now, and get your 2024 tax receipt. Be sure to select David Livingstone Elementary PAC as the fund destination. 

The David Livingstone silent auction returns! Starting this Sunday, December 1, you can start bidding on over $4,000 worth of locally donated items and gift cards. Just in time for your holiday gift giving! Please be sure to thank our local donors by shopping locally this season. Start browsing now and set a reminder to bid starting Sunday, December 1. Bidding closes at 11pm Saturday December 14.
​
If you have a gift card or item to contribute, please contact [email protected] and we'll add it to the auction.

As you may have heard, a Livingstone family has generously offered to help us reach our fall fund drive goal of $30,000 by offering to MATCH ALL DONATIONS OF $100 OR MORE between November 14-24! This wonderful matching offer means that every $100 donated automatically becomes $200, every $500 becomes $1,000, and so on. Just think of how much closer we can get to achieving our goal (to provide 30 brand-new laptops for our school) if we all pitch in over the next 10 days! 

Help us take advantage of this matching offer by donating today:

1. Visit https://vsb.schoolcashonline.com/Fee/Details/1869/196/false/true 
2. Select “David Livingstone Elementary PAC” from the Fund Destination drop-down. 

Don't forget, all donations over $25 will also fetch you a tax receipt.

Thanks again to all of you who've donated so far, and to those who will be donating soon. And thank you to our matching family, who will donate up to $10,000 in matching funds to help us get there faster.

The Livingstone PAC would like to remind you of a few items coming up next week. If you have any questions, you can reach them at [email protected]. 

Apple Fundraiser Ends Wednesday
The PAC has partnered with Sun-Oka Farms in the Okanagan to offer these local apples to our school. Order deadline is this Wednesday Oct 9 and the school will earn $8-10 per flat sold. They'll be delivered to the school mid-October. Order here: 
https://fundraising.sunokafruit.com/sales/0921104406/org-campaign/david-livingstone-elementary-harvest-2024

Fun Lunch
Did you know you can still add additional days for fun lunch for your children? Check out the menus at: 
https://munchalunch.com/

You're Invited! 
The next PAC meeting is in the library (and online) on Wednesday, Oct 16 at 6:30pm. Free pizza and babysitting are provided! We'd love to see you there! If you'd prefer to join online, use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88462082111?pwd=tcKSztd5Ck27viB4bmd0bIHZdTvAyx.1 

Meeting ID: 884 6208 2111
Passcode: 366594

You can also view last month's minutes on the PAC website: 
http://www.livingstonepac.org/

Thank you as well to all the parents who have signed up to volunteer at the school and upcoming events! We appreciate our community. If you'd like to volunteer for anything, you can find the signup sheet here: 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LLfe9eG1dAeE34_yUCPT5KXWFizktwyYAbgQ8o8XG1A/htmlview

Have a wonderful remainder of your week and a great long weekend! 

- Your PAC Exec Team

Hi Livingstone Community,

Hope everyone is having a wonderful long weekend.  Here are a few updates from the school PAC.

PAC Meeting

We hosted our last PAC meeting of the year this past week!  For those interested in reading the meeting minutes, they can be found here. If you have any questions/comments please email us at  [email protected].  
 
New PAC Executive!
 
Great news, we have filled all of the open PAC executive positions!  Please join us in welcoming our new PAC Executive as well as Committee leads for next year.
 
Executive

• Chair: Caroline Provost
• Vice Chair: Sheila Louis
• Treasurer: Jitender Banga
• Secretary: Jules Balsillie (Callie Service as back up)
• Communications: Janessa Hicks

 
Committee Leads:

• Fall Fund Drive: Lesley Stokes
• Gardening: Mikaela Ann Smith
• Fun Lunch Coordinator: TBD (Caroline to continue managing the website)
• Diversity Committee: Nav Nathoo
• Teacher Appreciation: Namita Kearns
• Walk-a-thon: Tanya Barrie
• Family Dance: Gwen Lutz
• Parent Night Out: TBD

 
 
Year End Family BBQ – Coming Soon!
 
Please mark your calendars for Wednesday June 5th for our David Livingstone year end BBQ.  More information will be shared next week.
 
Fundraising:  Annual Walk-a-thon
 
As you know our Livingstone’s annual Walk-a-thon took place Friday, May 10th.  We are still tallying the numbers but so far looks like we’ve netted over $7,000!  This will help fund PAC supported programs that enhance student experiences at Livingstone throughout the year.  More information to come on prizes and t-shirts.
 
Fun Lunch Volunteers Needed
 
We are getting close to the end of the year but we still need some assistance with the distribution of Fun Lunch.  This is a 15-20 minute time commitment to help with distribution to the classrooms. All lunches are divided by class by the vendors, come by and say ‘Hello’ to your child! Their faces light up when they see their parent at the school in the middle of the day!  A huge thank you to the parents who have volunteered their time so far. If you are interested in volunteering for any fun lunch or any other activities, please sign up here.  

Hi Livingstone Community,

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.  Here are a few important updates from the school PAC.

PAC Meeting

We hosted our hybrid PAC meeting this past week and had the largest turn out of the year!  For those interested in reading the meeting minutes, they can be found here.  If you have any questions/comments please email us at  [email protected].  Our next PAC meeting will be Wednesday May 15th.  This meeting is an important one as we will be reviewing and approving the budget for next year.
 
PAC Executive Positions & Committee Leads

As some of you might know, the term for some of our executive positions on the PAC have a 2-year maximum (per the bylaws).  Therefore, we have some open positions…4 to be exact!   The PAC executive is an important part of our school and community and can be a very rewarding opportunity to support our children, teachers and school.  This year we will be looking for volunteers for the PAC executive as well as committee leads. This slightly new structure will help lighten the workload for the PAC executive members and provide more opportunities for parents to be involved. 
 
PAC Executive Positions (more information on these roles can be found here)
1.       Chair/Co-Chair
2.       Vice-Chair/Co-Chair
3.       Treasurer (filled)
4.       Communications
5.       Secretary
 
Committees (more information on these roles can be found here)
1.       Diversity
2.       Fall Fund Drive
3.       School Dance
4.       Fun Lunch (filled)
5.       Gardening (filled)
6.       Parent Night Out
7.       Teacher Appreciation
8.       Walk-a-thon (filled)
 
Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions and/or interest at [email protected].  The PAC exec members would also be happy to meet/sit with you to answer any questions you might have.  We will be looking for roles to be filled and voted on by the end of May.   
 
Fundraising:  Annual Walk-a-thon

Livingstone’s annual Walk-a-thon will take place Friday, May 10th just after lunch on the grass field. The Walk-a-thon is an active and healthy way to raise money for our school, helping fund PAC supported programs that enhance student experiences at Livingstone throughout the year. There are also a lot of great prizes to be won…more info on that as well as an information sheet and pledge form will be coming home this week.  
 
We would love to have parent volunteers join in the fun.  We need 12 people to help mark the lap cards - it’s tough work as the older kids tend to try to maximize their laps!   The link to volunteer is here.

Where do funds raised go?

New this year:
Grade 7’s: Funds raised by Grade 7’s will go to support their leaving ceremony activities, including lunch and a dance with DJ Rachel Beau.  
Grade 6’s: Funds raised by Grade 6’s will go towards their Grade 7 end of year activity (this year it is 2 nights at Camp Jubilee). For parents, this is helpful to encourage so that coordinating fundraisers next year may not be required.

For all other students, funds raised go to support enhancing experiences in our school, including:

• Library books and classroom literacy supplies
• Arts performance
• Athletic equipment
• Technology

 
Walking School Bus

What is it?  Simply put - a walking school bus is just like a regular bus. Kids can get dropped off and picked up at a stop along the route by a responsible adult who will support them to get to school (or back to the stop at the end of the day!)

The exact start date will be announced soon. To view the route map, click here. 

To register your kid(s), please fill out the following form: Registration Form 

Volunteers needed! The program relies on volunteer support. If you, or another adult in your household, are available to volunteer as a Walk Leader, please add your name to the volunteer section of the registration form and we will reach out with more information. 

​For any questions, please contact [email protected].

Fun Lunch Volunteers Needed
 
We are getting close to the end of the year but we still need some assistance with the distribution of Fun Lunch.  This is a 15-20 minute time commitment to help with distribution to the classrooms. All lunches are divided by class by the vendors, come by and say ‘Hello’ to your child! Their faces light up when they see their parent at the school in the middle of the day!  A huge thank you to the parents who have volunteered their time so far. If you are interested in volunteering for any fun lunch or any other activities, please sign up here.  

Hi Livingstone Community,

Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend.  Here are a few updates from the school PAC.

PAC Meeting
We hosted our hybrid PAC meeting this past week.  For those interested, the meeting minutes can be found here. If you have any questions/comments please email us at  [email protected].  Our next PAC meeting will be Wednesday April 17th. 
 
Upcoming PAC Executive Positions
As some of you might know, the term for some of our executive positions on the PAC have a 2-year maximum (per the bylaws).  Therefore we have some open positions…4 to be exact!   The PAC executive is an important part of our school and community and can be a very rewarding opportunity to support our children, teachers and school.  This includes fundraising (for all the things our students and teachers need), fun lunches (life savers!), events, etc.   Below are the positions with the current members.  Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions and/or interest at [email protected].  The PAC exec members would be happy to meet/sit with you to discuss what the roles entail and what time commitment is required.
 
Chair (Navneet Nathoo)
Vice-Chair (Lindsay Clayton)
Communications (Namita Kearns)
Secretary (Julia Balsillie)
 
Our co-treasures, Jitender Banga and Gwen Lutz will be staying on. 
 
Celebrating Diversity – Black History Month
In part with the new PAC Diversity Celebration, we are honoured to present our next event for Black History Month. As a part of this celebration we will feature dance performances with respected members of the Black community, Marion Launders and Albert St. Albert Smith. After a school wide assembly presentation, each class will receive dance sessions with Marion and Albert. They have been collaborating on music and dance from the African Diaspora for over 20 years.
 
This PAC funded, parent driven event was newly established to showcase the various cultural celebrations within our school community. If you are interested in sharing your family celebration with the school community, please contact [email protected] . Don’t know how to get started?  We have a short outline to help with planning and materials needed for the celebrations! 
 
Fun Lunch Volunteers Needed
To keep our Fun Lunch program going strong, we need some assistance with distribution. This is a 15-20 minute time commitment to help with distribution to the classrooms. All lunches are divided by class by the vendors, come by and say ‘Hello’ to your child! Their faces light up when they see their parent at the school in the middle of the day!  And we also want to thank the parents who have volunteered their time so far. If you are interested in volunteering for any fun lunch or any other activities, please sign up here.  

Hi Livingstone Community,

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.  Here are a few updates from the school PAC.

PAC Meeting
Great to see the parents who made it to the PAC meeting last week.  For those interested, the meeting minutes can be found here. If you have any questions/comments please email us at  [email protected].  Our next PAC meeting will be Wednesday February 21st. 
 
Parents Night Out -- Coming Up!
 
Don't forget to buy tickets to Parents Night Out: Dancing Through the Decades! Enjoy dancing, drinks, a photobooth, prizes for best costumes/outfits, silent auction, and most importantly: no children! ;) Feel free to invite friends and neighbours as well (you'll just need to grab their tickets for them before the event sells out).
 
Grab your tickets at https://munchalunch.com
 
SILENT AUCTION
Check out our silent auction--now live! We know not everyone can make it to the soiree, but everyone can bid on $5,000 worth of auction items we've collected from our generous community donors:
 
https://www.32auctions.com/dlsa2024
 
Bidding ends when the soiree ends: Feb 3 at 11:30pm.
 
A special thanks to our night out sponsors:

• Broadstreet HEOR
• Newell Cotton TheGoTeam.ca, Real Estate / Dexter Realty
• Karley Rice PREC MacDonald Realty
• Moody Ales.

 
PS it's not too late to volunteer the event!  Find the sign up sheet here.
 
Celebrating Diversity
 
The PAC Diversity Committee was formed this year with the purpose to showcase and educate our community on the wide variety of holidays that are celebrated by the families at Livingstone. This PAC funded parent-driven initiative is available to any parent willing to take the lead and showcase their celebrations.  If you are interested in sharing a tradition, festival, or celebration, please bring your ideas to us by emailing the PAC at [email protected] . There is a guideline/outline to follow and support will be available from the PAC and the school.
 
Fun Lunch Volunteers Needed
 
To keep our Fun Lunch program going strong, we need some assistance with distribution. This is a 15-20 minute time commitment to help with distribution to the classrooms. All lunches are divided by class by the vendors, come by and say ‘Hello’ to your child! Their faces light up when they see their parent at the school in the middle of the day!  And we also want to thank the parents who have volunteered their time so far. If you are interested in volunteering for any fun lunch or any other activities, please sign up here.  

Hi Livingstone Community,

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.  We have a few updates and some key dates and events to share.

PAC Meeting
Our third PAC meeting of the year was this past Wednesday and the minutes can be found here.  If you have any questions/comments please email us at  [email protected].  We will be taking a break in December and our next PAC meeting will be Wednesday January 17th. 
 
Fall Fund ‘Tech’ Drive – Thank you!
We are happy to share that we raised $17,836!  This is an amazing accomplishment and will allow us to make the technology upgrades within the classrooms and to fund the literacy programs teachers rely on.  Thank you again for all your contributions!
 
Diwali and Future Celebrations
We received wonderful feedback on the Diwali celebration held at the school on November 15th.   The kids learned a lot and were able to enjoy some great activities and food.   Hopefully you heard all about it from your children.  The purpose of the newly formed PAC Diversity Committee is to showcase and educate our community on the wide variety of holidays that are celebrated by the families at Livingstone. This PAC funded parent-driven initiative is available to any parent willing to take the lead and showcase their celebrations.  If you are interested in sharing a tradition, festival, or celebration, please bring your ideas to us by emailing the PAC at [email protected] . There is a guideline/outline to follow and support will be available from the PAC and the school.
 
Family Dance - Thursday, November 30  
Our family dance, “Let It Glow” will take place on Thursday November 30th.  We are excited by all the interest of this event and tickets sold out very quickly.   We apologize to those who wanted to attend.  We are using this as a learning opportunity for future events!  If you did get tickets, a reminder to make your pizza order too if you’d haven’t already.  If you are unable to use your tickets, please consider 'gifting' or reselling at face value to a friend as this is a community event. 
 
Parents Soiree Reminder and Volunteer Callout
Save-the-date for the Livingstone ‘soiree’:  February 3, 2024 at Heritage Hall.  This will be a fun night for parents to meet and mingle (this is a kid free event :)).  To volunteer, please email [email protected] or sign up here.
 
Fun Lunch Volunteers Needed
To keep our Fun Lunch program going strong, we need some assistance with distribution. This is a 15-20 minute time commitment to help with distribution to the classrooms. All lunches are divided by class by the vendors, come by and say ‘Hello’ to your child! Their faces light up when they see their parent at the school in the middle of the day!  And we also want to thank the parents who have volunteered their time so far. If you are interested in volunteering for any fun lunch or any other activities, please sign up here.  

Hi Livingstone Community,

Hope everyone is enjoying this sunny weekend!  Just a quick out of cycle message regarding our current fundraisers. 

Fall Fund ‘Tech’ Drive
 
We're off to an amazing start to for our Fall Fund Drive ... in the first week we have raise $9,000 which is almost half of our goal!! Great job Livingstone community for coming together to meet this goal. 100% of your donation will go directly to the school and you will receive a tax receipt for your donation. Every donation is important and will contribute to our community! Thank you everyone who has already made a donation and we've got this together!  If you haven’t yet had a chance to donate, please consider.

DONATE NOW: https://vsb.schoolcashonline.com/fee/details/1869/196/false/true and Select E-David Livingstone PAC (from the drop down box)

The goal is to raise $20,000 for the school which with 277 kids at the school that nets out to approximately $70-75 per child.  We recognize this dollar amount may seem jarring in this economic climate.  Our overall goal is to raise funds as a community, and not to pressure individuals or families.  Please give what you can!
 
Donut Fundraiser! 
 
Dreaming of some yummy, glazed Krispy Kreme donuts? We’ve got you covered. Our Grade 7 students are excited to host a Krispy Kreme donut fundraiser this November to help offset costs for the Grade 7 year-end graduation field trip to Camp Jubilee in May 2024. 

Here’s how you can help! You can now order your very own box (or more) of a dozen, glazed Krispy Kreme donuts via our MunchALunch website for all your friends, neighbours and family members! The deadline to place your order online is November 13 via MunchALunch. Click on “Donut Fundraiser” on the top toolbar to get started.

Donut orders will be delivered fresh to David Livingstone on November 23, and will be ready for pickup after school at the undercover area. Thank you for your support! Our goal is to raise at least 50% of Grade 7 field trip costs to cover approximately $200 per student.

Thank you for your support!
Grade 7 Committee