Students were great on Halloween

Essex CHIPS is pleased to report that this year’s Stomping Ground Halloween Dance was a huge success.  Over 250 high school youth joined us on Friday the 31st from 8 p.m.-midnight for dancing, a superb music line-up, and a costume contest.

We were thoroughly impressed with the student turnout and the creativity and appropriateness of costumes this year.  As appropriate dress was a concern of past years, the Stomping Ground Committee and Essex CHIPS worked hard to educate and empower students to take responsibility surrounding costume choices and appropriateness. 

We thank the students in attendance for respecting the guidelines set forth and taking ownership of their decisions. We look forward to offering more healthy and safe events hosted by the Stomping Ground in the months to come. 

We would like to thank all the local organizations for assisting in the planning and execution of this event.  Some of the contributors include the youth on the Stomping Ground Committee for planning and executing a great event; the Essex Police Department and Chief Leo Nadeau for making a guest visit to the dance; Mike Abbott and his supporting MC Tyler for kicking great tunes; volunteer chaperones Saunya Mapes, John Rowell, Christi Downey, and Karin Hammer; and Michelle and Tony from the Red Clover Salon for opening their space to house 50 plus students while they waited for entrance into the dance (as our event reached capacity within 10 minutes).  We sincerely appreciate your support.

Aaron Kinnart

Assistant Director, Essex CHIPS, Inc.

Trash on the lawn was a success

Thank you to everyone who helped with Trash on the Lawn Day at Essex High School. It was an overall success.  The good news is we do a great job recycling paper and plastic bottles.  We were not able to compile the data today, but we will be sharing the results with you in the near future.  

If you were inspired by the events, join the Environmental Club.

We would especially like to thank all the students for their hard work and good behavior.  Our students received high compliments from both CSWD & AVR (the organizations who helped run the event and do them all over the state).  They said you were some of the best-behaved and hardest-working students they have seen.  Once again you show that Essex serves as a model for the rest of the state. 

We would like to give a special thank you to the following people who went above and beyond to make the event a success:

Mr. Pennington, Mrs. Ferrell, Ms. Edwards, and all of their classes

Miss Burnham’s Great Ideas Classes

Mr. Reardon for his support 

Mr.  Murdough, Mr. Rich and all of Maintenance for their help, hard work and support

Tom Preska and the Digital Media Club 

Mrs.  Eccleston, Mrs. Rath, Mrs. Spaulding & Mrs. Bonges

Evelina Nikolic, Kayla Ray (both worked all day)

Thank you everyone for your help and support.

Miss Burnham, Mrs. Birner and the Environmental Club

Essex High School

Help boost the band at Essex High

The Essex Band Booster Organization is hosting our annual Silent Auction Dinner Concert on Friday, November 14 at the Essex High School.  The evening will include a silent auction and spaghetti dinner with entertainment provided by talented young musicians from the high school band.  The event is open to the public and is followed by the High School Musical.

Doors open at 5:00 pm and advanced tickets are available at the EHS office for $6 each or $5 each for a family of four or more.  This is a great opportunity to bid on items donated by area businesses and to support the Band.  Proceeds from this event will help fund the upcoming trip to Disney World this spring where students have been selected to perform in the park and participate in educational workshops.

We greatly appreciate the generous support of the community and area businesses and look forward to providing you with an excellent meal and savory sounds Friday November 14 at 5 p.m. in the EHS cafeteria.

Essex Band Booster

Organization

Essex High School

Thanks for helping Girl Scouts

On Oct. 11, all the Essex Junction Girl Scouts, from kindergarten to 11th grade, collected food from various neighborhoods to donate to the Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf at the First Congregational Church on Main Street.

The Girl Scouts would like to thank all who donated to this food drive. We collected 2,339 pounds of  nonperishable food to feed our hungry Essex Junction neighbors.

We had a lot of fun collecting and found  homemade banana muffins  made by Becca (senior girl scout) and Totyona Hall, waiting for us when we returned to the church with our food.

The Essex Junction Girl Scouts have been doing this yearly service project since 2001, when we took up the “make a difference” challenge. Thanks again.

Maria Dramstad

Essex Junction Girl Scout manager