The Hastings PAC Garden Club wants you! (and your weeding tools, your brooms, your shovels, your secateurs.. you get the idea) We are getting ready to get growing in the school garden, which makes this the perfect time of year to do a little clean up in our green space.
Please join us Thurs Feb 27 from 3-5 pm at the undercover area so that we can pull out weeds, dig up plants that didn’t make it through the winter, and generally spruce things up. It’s the first thing we need to take care of, with sessions planned for later this year to improve the quality of our dirt, and then get planting!
Work gloves are also highly recommended. Children are welcome to join if they can follow strict safety rules, and are under the direct supervision of their parent(s).
Hastings PAC Presents Holiday Movie Night: doors at 5, 1st movie at 5:30. Admission by donation.
Hastings PAC is inviting you to say Hello to the Holidays! Please join us at the school gym on Weds Dec 18 between 5-8 for a double blast of Grinch goodness! We’ll screen the original 1966 animated short with Boris Karloff as the iconic voice of the green guy starting at 5:30 pm, and then segue into the full length CGI-animated feature from 2018, with Benedict Cumberbatch taking his Grinchy turn.
Doors open at 5 pm with admission by suggested donation of $5/person, capped at $20 for families of more than 4. Bring whatever suits your movie-watching style best when it comes to seating, whether that’s a bean bag, a sleeping bag or blanket, or a camp chair. Did we mention it’s a pretend-over? Wear your jammies and bring a stuffy if you like!
We also have all of your dinner and snack needs sorted!
We’ll have pizza, popcorn, treats, and beverages, and for the first time in Hastings’ history — the ‘Not a PBJ’ Bannock Bar. Take your pick from a non-nut based butter (eg WOW butter, sunflower seed butter, pumpkin seed butter) and a dozen sweet spreads, and build yourself a fab sandwich out of the fluffiest, most delicious bannock you’ve ever had. Or, go deluxe with a marshmallow and chocolate syrup version — it’s the holidays, after all. If you don’t have a sweet tooth and prefer the savoury, we’ll have you covered there too, with grilled cheese bannock, or vegetarian chili and bannock.
Please rsvp to info@hastingspac.ca in advance to give us a general sense of numbers. We are still looking for volunteers to help make the night go smoothly; please email us there as well if you’re available.
We’ll have an awesome holiday-themed draw for attendees, and we’ll share participation details for that through the PAC newsletter. Please sign up for that — you guessed it — by emailing us at info@hastingspac.ca.
We want to provide lots of opportunities to hear from you — so we’ve gone ahead and set the PAC general meetings for the rest of this school year! Please mark your calendars now for these dates:
Tues Feb 25
Weds Apr 30
Tues May 27
Weds Jun 18
We’ve alternated between Tuesdays and Wednesdays to try and make the dates as accessible as possible (we know extracurricular schedules get locked down pretty early.)
For now, we are testing out holding meetings at 630 pm in the library and will advise if that changes. Please make sure to subscribe to the newsletter through info@hastingspac.ca to make sure you’re always into the loop!
Hastings PAC is excited to announce we are ready to move forward with our new monthly hot lunch fundraiser! It will typically take place on the last Friday of the month, except if there is a day off from school or holiday break impending.
As of this week, you can take one thing off your to-do list and support Hastings PAC initiatives by ordering lunch through our provider C’est Mon Cafe (CMC). Funds raised go into supporting programs and initiatives for Hastings students like enhanced learning opportunities, food security in a variety of different forms, and classroom supplies.
-click ‘order’ for the correct time period (CMC splits the year up into Sept-Jan, and then Feb-June.)
-check out the menu first (it’s not this old-timey one in the illustration!), consider whether you want any add-ons like sides or beverages for your child(ren), and when you’re ready, click through to the order form itself (a Google form.) Please make sure you include your child(ren)’s first and last name, grade, and correct division number (check it here if you’re not sure what it is.) Meals are delivered on the day based on the division number, so having correct information ensures children get to eat their meals as quickly as possible. Don’t worry too much about the ‘odd’ and ‘even’ calendar day menus; the Google form only allows you to select from available options.
IMPORTANT – ORDERS AND PAYMENT MUST BE IN BY 6 PM the day before the hot lunch fundraiser occurs. For example, for the hot lunch fundraiser occurring Fri Oct 18th, orders must be received by CMC before 6 pm on Thurs Oct 17. If the order is not sent in on time, your child(ren) will not receive a meal. This is at CMC’s discretion, and is outside the control of Hastings PAC.
ALSO IMPORTANT – CMC allows you to specify in the form whether your child(ren) has/have specific dietary needs, such as gluten-free, vegetarian, or halal meals. However, if you have specific allergy or other concerns, it is best to email CMC directly to see what they can accommodate properly and safely. These requests and requirements must also be received by CMC in advance.
At the moment, the Hot Lunch Committee has set four dates for this fundraiser (Oct, Nov, Dec, and Jan) and if you would like to participate in all four days, you can go ahead and order those meals now in advance for convenience’s sake. However, there is no obligation to order more than once (or at all, this is completely voluntary!) You can also choose to order just one meal, and then play it by ear from there as to whether you would like to order again, as long as you order before 6 pm the day before the hot lunch fundraiser is next scheduled to take place.
Ordering and payment goes directly through the provider, but all communications about the hot lunch fundraising days will come through the PAC email newsletter, so if you are not already signed up for that, please do so now through the embed form here, on the right hand side of the website page.
If you are on the regular daily hot lunch program, you are certainly welcome to take part in the fundraising hot lunch! Any extra meals from daily hot lunch will be distributed to those who would like to have them or take them home. If you would like to participate in the hot lunch fundraiser but it feels outside your current budget, please email Trevor and we would be delighted to coordinate.
This is a new adventure for Hastings PAC, so if you have any thoughts or feedback as we go along — or perhaps have an idea for a meal you’d like to have brought in for a special occasion — please absolutely get in touch!
Image description: cover of the book Robes of Power, by Doreen Jensen and Polly Sargent.
We were honoured to receive a Placemaking grant from the City of Vancouver to help activate the public plaza at Kamloops and Hastings (400 Kamloops St.) Please join us for the event Fri Oct 11 from 3-6 pm, starting from the front doors of the school and leading to the plaza itself.
Indigenous parents first shared this idea for cultural sharing in the spring, and we are grateful to extend this conversation about Reconciliation through this event. Everyone is invited to come to the plaza to use the materials traditionally associated with Coast Salish button blankets — felt/wool melton, suede, buttons, etc. — to create a mini-textile art piece that reflects your heritage or culture. Haida artist Clarence Mills (Gah Ghin Skuss) has also granted us the right for attendees to use his art in the creation of your pieces. If you aren’t sure of your sewing abilities, that’s okay — we’ll also have glue and tape on hand for people who are more comfortable using those.
We will have some textile art on display co-created with Indigenous Hastings parents, as well as materials explaining the history of button blankets and the multilayered ways we are connecting through this project. We were guided very much in this project by the book Robes of Power, referenced above, as well as a number of Indigenous elders, scholars, and experts.
We will be serving light refreshments, including bannock, and hope you’re available to join us!
