Parent Teacher Fellowship Adapts Amid Pandemic

ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE SPRING 2021 MESSENGER MAGAZINE

The Heritage PTF is typically busy year-round planning events, raising funds, and managing volunteers. But this year, PTF President Angel Turpin and the team shifted their focus, as most of their traditional events and fundraisers were canceled. In spite of their limited budget and in-person challenges, the Heritage PTF has continued to serve our faculty and staff and bring joy to our students.

Here are a few things the PTF has been doing around campus:

Faculty and Staff Appreciation

This year, the PTF’s primary focus has been to encourage our faculty and staff. Volunteers deliver monthly appreciation gifts like prayer cards, chocolate, gift bags, and fun beverages. The PTF typically hosts the Worthy Servants Brunch each December to celebrate our faculty and staff. With no brunch on the calendar, they instead partnered with a meal program to provide a take-home meal for every HCS staff member.

“I love that it reached the entire staff this year,” said Angel. “Normally, the brunch only serves those who can attend, so it was special to give that gift to every Heritage staff member.”

Fun Run

The PTF was excited to be able to make the Fun Run (formerly Jog-a-Thon) happen this March. The Fun Run is the PTF’s main annual fundraiser that raises money for special events, projects, and financial bonuses and gifts to the faculty and staff.

This year, it raised support primarily for campus improvements through the Heritage Fund.

The PTF hired Boosterthon to manage the event. Boosterthon streamlines the giving process, energizes students with incentives, prizes, and mascots, and runs the day’s program. Students in grades preschool to eighth grade sent out fundraising support emails to family and friends to request online donations.

This year, the event was an indoor Glow Run in the elementary and high school gyms, complete with glow-in-the-dark track lights, bracelets, white t-shirts, and fun music. Each classroom cohort had the gym to itself and students ran for 25 minutes. It was a terrific success: the students had a blast and the PTF surpassed their financial goal. These funds will help the PTF return to some normalcy next year.

HCS Spirit Wear

Several years ago, the PTF recognized that HCS spirit wear was hard to come by for elementary students and newer families. To meet the need, the PTF set up a temporary online store this February to sell HCS shirts, sweatshirts, pants, and hats.

As PTF volunteers were in charge of the entire operation (managing the website and orders, packaging items, and delivering them to families), they only kept the online store open for 10 days. They were overwhelmed by the response.

“We sold over 900 items," said Angel. "We were very shocked by the great turnout.”

The PTF plans to sell more spirit wear in the fall, either online or in person.

Overall, the PTF has worked hard to continue bringing joy to our community. Angel has been disappointed that she’s had to turn away PTF volunteers this school year. But she and her team have high hopes of returning to their normal events in the near future.

"God has seen us through this year and has surpassed our needs. We are so thankful, too, for how our Heritage families have supported us this year," said Angel.