Parent-Teacher Organization: A Labor of Love that Benefits Parish School

From encouraging our parish children to offer acts of kindness towards others, to hosting Bingo and Trivia nights so that everyone can have a blast, the Parent-Teacher Organization of Immaculate Conception Catholic School (PTO) has one main mission — to share God’s love.

“Everything the PTO does is a labor of love,” says Casey Simon, who is serving his second term as PTO President. “We have such an awesome PTO board, as well as amazing sponsors and school parents. I just love seeing all the good we can do together to help our school.”

In fact, this love is so great that it spans generations.

“I went to our parish school as a youngster, and so did my wife, Amy, who is now a second-grade teacher there,” Casey says. “Our roots run deep with Immaculate Conception, and there is a lot of love in our hearts for our parish and school family. I want to contribute in any way I can to help make the lives of our children, students and staff better.”

In addition to being the main fundraising arm for our parish school, the PTO also fulfills other important functions.

“The school can’t do what it does without the parish and the parish can’t do what it does without the school,” Casey says. “The PTO works hard to fundraise, support our teachers, and host community events so that our school families can get together. The PTO provides many of the ‘extras’ that our school parents, students and teachers like to have.”

All of the families who send their children to the school are automatically considered members of the PTO, whether they choose to be very active or not.

“We can use everyone’s help,” Casey says. “It takes a lot of volunteer help from a lot of people to pull off the big events we offer, and make them a success.”

On a normal year, the PTO organizes several uplifting social events, like the used uniform sale each August; the Falcon Fest each fall; the Raise Craze fundraiser in October; Ladies’ Night Bingo on the opening night of deer season in November; the Santa Shop in December; a pancake breakfast in honor of Catholic Schools Week each January; and more.

“The Falcon Fest is the biggest event we offer,” Casey says. “Even though we couldn’t do it this fall, we hope to do it this spring. It brings our families together. It is a lot of work, but it is a lot of fun too!”

Monetarily speaking, Raze Craze is the most profitable annual school fundraiser. It is also a beautiful way to communicate the importance of God’s love to others.

“This year, the theme for Raze Craze was ‘Kindness is My Superpower,’” Casey says. “The students were encouraged to do acts of kindness for others to raise donations for the school, such as picking up litter or holding the door for others.”

The PTO is also passionate about making our school teachers feel appreciated for all that they do for our children. For example, each August the PTO prepares a “back to school” breakfast for them.

Impressively, even though the school has waived the necessary volunteer service requirement for our PTO school parents, that hasn’t stopped them from being incredibly generous.

“Our school parents are still helping a lot, even though they don’t ‘have’ to,” Casey says. “For example, on the First Friday of each month, the PTO gives $10 restaurant lunches to our school teachers. So far, we have filled every slot! This is a complete volunteer effort on behalf of our school families, and it has all been done out of love. It is so awesome to see the parish school environment pull together for this effort.”

Amazingly, despite the trials our country is facing, the PTO has come through in ways that they never have been able to before.

“Thanks to the money we have raised through events and our sponsors, we have obtained $15,000 in tuition assistance for families in need,” Casey says. “We have never done this before. It is great to see. Some families have been hit hard by the pandemic, and we feel for them and are so glad to be able to help!”

The school is especially in need of monetary support at this time. For further information on how to help provide our parish school children with a Catholic education, please contact Casey Simon at pto@icsnlr.org.