El Marino wins National PTA Membership Contest

Photo courtesy of Jody Reichel parents—Pictured is the El Marino PTA with its $1,000 Prize with Membership Chair Stephany Olson, left, Immediate Past President Anne Burke, President Nisha Horton and former membership chair and mentor to Stephany, Maren

Last winter and spring, the National PTA organized a membership contest called 14 in 14. For every 14 new members to join a PTA unit between February and June of 2014, the unit was entered in a raffle. Only 14 winners were chosen out of the tens of thousands of PTA units across the country.

Culver City’s own El Marino Language School was randomly selected as one of the winners. The prize was $1,000, which the El Marino PTA will dedicate to enriching the educational experiences of its students, as it does with all of the money it raises. Membership is very important for PTA and a large membership gives PTA a strong voice when advocating for children at the local, state and national levels.

Membership dollars also add to fundraising. And when a school’s PTA has a large membership, it can be more effective in keeping the community informed about events and topics of interest. Joining PTA is one more way of letting your students know that their education is a priority, and that you want to enrich their educational experiences in every way you can.

Joining PTA builds community; a community that tells students that it believes in them, and are advocating for their future.