Dear Oyster-Adams Families,

Here are this week's notable celebrations!

First, thanks to all our families for supporting the celebration our Upstander Friday at Oyster. During Community Meeting, we all wore orange in solidarity and recognized the importance of standing up for kindness, respect, and inclusion in our community. Please continue to reinforce these values at home—they truly make a difference!

Second, our Book Fair was an incredible achievement, collecting over $45,000! We sold $45,396 and OA will receive 25% of that amount. Additionally, this year, second-grade mom Maïté Hostetter initiated a flash-fundraising campaign and raised over $1400 to augment the OCC's Books for Tigers fund. Thanks to the OCC and the generosity of our families, more than 100 students who otherwise may not have been able to buy books received a voucher worth $30 to spend at the fair. This continues our book fair's long-standing tradition that no student will come to the fair without being able to buy a book. For more info, please read this lovely community thank you note from Ms. Benson, our extraordinary volunteer coordinator at the Book Fair! Her work throughout Ms. Kleinmann's leave allowed our Oyster library to keep going, and in her note she acknowledges the dozens of other folks that keep the Book Fair tradition alive and constantly evolving.

We are also thrilled to share some communal wins for our students! The Oyster-Adams Debaters did a great job at the Urban Dragon Invitational tournament last weekend. Competing mostly against high school debaters from several states in the Junior Varsity division, both of the teams of Alexander Ferris Artiga/Berrin Gucuk and Annika Pinol/Henri Risher won 4 of their 6 rounds, just missing out on advancing to elimination rounds. Outstanding work, OA Debate Team!

Finally, we're excited to announce that second-grader Zola Hull won a national invention competition last week! We couldn’t be prouder of her accomplishment. She received the Junior Most Engaging Award for the family card game she invented. The award category is for projects based on most “interactivity, opportunity for repeat play, offers challenge and flexibility, and “hooks” players into continued engagement." The Young Inventor Challenge will be held next year too, check it out: https://www.chitag.com/yic

Thank you for being such an engaged and supportive community. Together, we continue to make Oyster-Adams a place where students thrive academically, socially, and creatively.

Warm regards,
Carolina Brito
Principal, Oyster-Adams Bilingual School