Note: Shift in Potential Departure Dates!!!

Greetings, Travelers! I just wanted to keep you informed about potential departure dates for the Italy trip. As you are aware, we may not know our actual departure/travel dates for some time yet, because our group will be consolidated with others to get a "full" tour.

In speaking with our tour consultant today, he encouraged me to expand the range of available dates for departure, as it means we will be more likely to get our "first choice" tour. (I think most of the students are aware of this, but upon creating our group tour I have to choose a couple "backup" tours in case we cannot get enough travelers to make it run. Since I assume most people want the tour we have talked about to date, I felt that was a priority).

Because I have conflicts with moving the departure dates earlier (and students do, too, at least until the end of the school year), I expanded the date range through the end of June. We'll talk about this at the Feb 7 meeting, but it essentially means you should be prepared to potentially depart anywhere from June 17-30. At the meeting, I would like to hear if anyone has conflicts with those dates and what they are, because I can adjust it further if need be (to some degree). EF needs at least 9 days of flexibility for departure.

We will have our firm departure date no later than early April, so we will know plenty of time in advance of departure. But please be aware that at this time that our travel dates are not firm. It will say a departure date on your online account (June 17), but this is merely our requested date, we are not guaranteed to leave that day.

Strawberry Sale Planned

As discussed at our last meeting, we are planning to team up with Chi-Hi's FFA Chapter for a Strawberry Sale. Students will collect orders for fresh strawberries that will arrive from Florida in early March. This is a great collaboration because in order to get shipments the total order has to be large...which is difficult for one organization to do alone.

Ms. Hasselquist informed me today that order collection will run from February 1 - 18. More details to follow (including delivery dates) next week.

Raffle Tickets Available for Sellers

Our raffle tickets arrived on Tuesday as scheduled, so stop by rm 136 to pick up as many as you would like to sell. (You can always get more if you run out, though, so perhaps start conservatively).

Tickets are sold for $2 a piece or 3 for $5, and money (plus ticket stubs and any unsold tickets) must be returned to me by the date of the drawing, February 20th.

I'll be adding to this post the files for an informational flyer and other important directions for sellers, but as I'm writing this at home and the files are at school, you'll have to be patient with me. Sorry!

Anyway, if there are events at which you would like to sell tickets (e.g. basketball games), let me know and I'll get the approval process rolling. I need to know at least 5 days in advance to get permission & a table arranged for you, but this would be an easy way to get some sales. Last year our group raised almost $1500 with this fundraiser, so take advantage of it!

(At left: second place prize: 30" x 30" wall hanging).