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REMINDER: BIPOC Caregiver Meeting, Thursday, May 4th; 7:45pm

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REMINDER: BIPOC caregiver meeting will be held Thursday, May 4th at 7:45pm via zoom.

The zoom link can be accessed HERE. 

Please email Jordan Samejima (jsamejima@greatriverschool.org) or Anu Dean (adean@greatriverschool.org) if you have any questions. 

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Great River School Board Elections 2023 - 2024

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It's time to vote in the Board Election for the 2023-2024 school year! Thank you to all of our candidates for being willing to serve on the board! We have a great group of candidates. Caregivers and Faculty, please check them out here! Voting will start Monday, May 1st at 8:00am. All parents, faculty, and board members are able to vote. Voting is open digitally from Monday through Thursday next week! cast your vote here! Election results will be shared the following week. 

Questions? Email executive@greatriverschool.org. 

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GRS Music Presents "Ziggy Stardust Project: A Celebration of the music of David Bowie"

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GRS is excited to announce our Ziggy Stardust Project: A Celebration of the Music of David Bowie show! A passionate and talented group of student musicians in grades 8 - 12 have been learning David Bowie’s entire Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust album (plus a few extras for fun) over the past few months and are excited to share their work with you!

We'll be performing at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall on Wed May 10 at 7:00. Doors open at 6:00. Student tickets are $10 now / $15 at the door and general tickets are $15 now / $20 at the door. This is a fundraiser for our music program to help purchase much needed equipment! Donations are welcome at the event as well. See you there!

Tickets available at the following link: https://www.amsterdambarandhall.com/Tickets

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Reminder: U of Mn Raptor Center donations, drop off by Friday, May 5th

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Hello, my name is Anthony and I’m a senior. I’m running a materials drive for a class assignment to help the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center continue their mission, which is “to ensure the health of raptors and the world we share.” We would like to have materials by May 5th. Please bring donations to the front desk and drop them off with Holly!

The Raptor Center performs rescues and rehabilitations on all species of raptors, and has requested the following items to help with their rehab work:

-nitrile gloves (size medium)
- paper towels
- hand soap
- 70% isopropyl alcohol
- 2” painters tape
-duct tape
- white printer paper
- fine point Sharpies
- ball-point pens

Thank you for your help,

Anthony

EXTERNAL EVENT: Dunwoody College Food Truck Takeover, May 9

Great River Students,

Dunwoody College of Technology is hosting a Food Truck Takeover at our Tuesday, May 9, Open House, from 3-6 p.m. This will be a great way for high school students to experience what a technical college has to offer before they head off into summer.

The event will include FREE food, prize drawings, campus tours, and hands-on demos.

dunwoody.edu/openhouse

Download the Flyer

We know that many high school seniors haven’t made a final decision on their fall plans, so this will be a good way for them to explore our hands-on programs in high-demand, great paying career fields such as Construction, Computers, Engineering, Automotive, Manufacturing, Robotics, Architecture, and Graphics.

The open house will include free food from five of the best food trucks in Minneapolis, along with a chance to win several prizes including a GoPro, a 3D printer, and an external hard drive.

Here are the food trucks participating in the takeover:

  • Butcher Salt | Chicken Fingers, French Fries

  • Sizzling Wagon | Sliders, Cheese Curds

  • Pharaoh’s Gyros | Gyros, Falafel & Hummus

  • Egg Roll Queen | Eggrolls, Cheesecake Eggrolls

  • Taqueria El Patron | Chicken, Beef, and Veggie Tacos

There is no cost to attend, but students should RSVP in advance. The event will take place at Dunwoody College of Technology, 818 Dunwoody Blvd., Minneapolis.

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Bike to School Day Next Wednesday 5/3

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Wednesday, May 3 is Bike to School Day! Plan to ride to school.

Students and parents who would like to participate in a group ride are invited to meet-up at the locations below. A map of the meet-up locations can be viewed here! 

Parents can support all riders by joining a group ride. Please plan to ride if your student is a novice rider or needs extra attention. Parent volunteers leading the ride shall not be liable for any damages arising from personal injuries that are a result of student participation in the Great River School National Bike to School Day event. In event of inclement weather, Bike to School Day may be postponed until Wednesday, May 11. Watch school announcements for details. Please notify the site group leader if you need to cancel your participation for any reason.

We are looking for donations of fruit and snacks, and volunteers to help direct bikers and hand out giveaway items. Please sign up at this link.

Helmets required. Notify the group leader at your preferred meet up spot that you plan to ride with them so no one gets left behind. Please make sure to arrange after school transportation with your student and group leader. Arrive early enough to check tire pressure and review group ride basics before listed departure times. 

Horton Park (departing at 8:10am), Hamline Avenue at Englewood. Contact Casy Fath, casy.fath@gmail.com or 651-325-1807.

McMurray Field (departing at 8:00am), southwest corner of Como/Wynne Avenue and Lexington. Contact Karen Solas, ksolas@gmail.com or 651-334-0793.

Newell Park (departing at 8:10am). Northwest corner of Hewitt and Wheelter. Contact Abram Shapiro, abr@mshapiro.com or 650-296-8692.

Longfellow Park (departing at 7:50), corner of east 34th St and 36th Ave S. Contact Randy Lewandowski, randylewandowski@gmail.com or 612-250-5001. 

Parent Coffee Social Wednesday, May 3 from 8:15 to 9:00am

Bike to school with your students and stay for a cup of coffee with other parents!

REMINDER: GRS Bike Tune-ups

Bike Tuneups for the 7/8 Bike Trip

Bike Trip preparation has already begun! The bike trip will be taking place June 5 - 8, 2023 and each student is required to have their bike be properly checked over by a bike shop. This typically costs around $110 at a local shop for a basic tune-up to $175 or more for a thorough tune-up. The Great River “Ridey Tighty” bike shop offers comprehensive check-ups for $70. and all bicycles going on the trip need to be tuned up. The GRS bike shop offers full tuneups for $70, about half the cost at a typical bike shop.

All bikers must fill out the 2023 Bike Shop Tuneup form; this will take you through the process of signing up for a GRS tuneup, or document if you will do a tuneup at a local shop. 

Student-mechanics tune up all bikes, under the supervision of bike shop guide Johnny Wakefield. We not only tune your bike to perfection, we clean it like nobody’s business. All funds raised through the Bike Shop are either directed towards the cost of the end of year Bike Trip or are reinvested in the Bike Shop program.

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Bike to School Day Next Wednesday 5/3

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Wednesday, May 3 is Bike to School Day! Plan to ride to school.

Students and parents who would like to participate in a group ride are invited to meet-up at the locations below. A map of the meet-up locations can be viewed here! 

Parents can support all riders by joining a group ride. Please plan to ride if your student is a novice rider or needs extra attention. Parent volunteers leading the ride shall not be liable for any damages arising from personal injuries that are a result of student participation in the Great River School National Bike to School Day event. In event of inclement weather, Bike to School Day may be postponed until Wednesday, May 11. Watch school announcements for details. Please notify the site group leader if you need to cancel your participation for any reason.

We are looking for donations of fruit and snacks, and volunteers to help direct bikers and hand out giveaway items. Please sign up at this link.

Helmets required. Notify the group leader at your preferred meet up spot that you plan to ride with them so no one gets left behind. Please make sure to arrange after school transportation with your student and group leader. Arrive early enough to check tire pressure and review group ride basics before listed departure times. 

Horton Park (departing at 8:10am), Hamline Avenue at Englewood. Contact Casy Fath, casy.fath@gmail.com or 651-325-1807.

McMurray Field (departing at 8:00am), southwest corner of Como/Wynne Avenue and Lexington. Contact Karen Solas, ksolas@gmail.com or 651-334-0793.

Newell Park (departing at 8:10am). Northwest corner of Hewitt and Wheelter. Contact Abram Shapiro, abr@mshapiro.com or 650-296-8692.

Longfellow Park (departing at 7:50), corner of east 34th St and 36th Ave S. Contact Randy Lewandowski, randylewandowski@gmail.com or 612-250-5001. 

Parent Coffee Social Wednesday, May 4 from 8:15 to 9:00am

Bike to school with your students and stay for a cup of coffee with other parents!

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Folk school update--Yoga on Thursdays!

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Yoga for all bodies and abilities (ages 12 and up)

Thursdays, 5:30-6:30 pm, April 27-May 25 (5 sessions)

Instructor: Delany Breitbach

Move, breathe, and sweat for 60 minutes of vinyasa yoga with good tunes and great energy with Delany (Health and Wellness Workshop and Big Canoe Guide). Whether you're a long time practitioner or just getting started, Delany teaches to all bodies and abilities, and empowers her students to move in ways that feel good to them. She is a 200-hour Certified Yoga Teacher and took her trainings in both Vinyasa/Power Yoga and Hot 26 in 2019 through her old home studio of Muddy Feet Yoga in Iowa City before moving to the Twin Cities. Bring a water bottle, towel, and any other item you may want to use in your practice. The only expectation is that you honor where you're at on that day and spend the 60 minutes taking care of you. 

Cost: $75 (5 sessions)

Sign up here.

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Update from GRS HS Robotics Team 2491 NoMythic!

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The HS Robotics Team, 2491 NoMythic, who is on their way to the FIRST World Championship in Houston, where they will be competing with 622 teams from around the world!  

You can follow the competition at:https://frc.divisions.co/r/south/d/Daly.  

You can support their fundraising at https://gofund.me/c6dbf4ce.

Hello!

NoMythic Team Member Joseph, Phoebe and Eva celebrating!

This is Phoebe, NoMythic's team captain. The last time I wrote a team update was after our win in Duluth in 2020.  Here we are again, my senior year, heading to the World Championships in Houston. We qualified for the World Championships three weeks ago in Minneapolis. I’d like to share with you that adventure!  

As we head to Houston, you can follow our adventure on our team’s instagram @2491nomythic. 

You can also follow the adventures of our team’s mascot Frank:  @franks_travels2491.

A brief summary of the Minneapolis competition:

It was an intense and exciting weekend! Our robot came together and came apart and came together again. We spent time with friends on other teams and made new friends. We were a very purple presence in the pits and the stands. Our alliance ended playoffs in third place. And... I'm still shocked to be saying this... we won the Impact Award, "the most prestigious award in all of FIRST" which means we are headed, once again, to the world championships in Houston, Texas! There were many many tears and so much laughter and joy and I could not be more grateful for your support through the season, helping us get to this moment.

Read their sponsor update, included below

https://www.greatriverschool.org/2023/4/19/triumphant-nomythic-robotics-team-firsthand-account

Triumphant NoMythic Robotics Team Firsthand account

Written by Team Captain, Phoebe

Our Minneapolis competition this year was amazing and tough and kind of a roller coaster - so much happened so quickly!

I have to preface this by saying that we chose a super ambitious design for our Minneapolis robot and so the weeks leading up to the competition were filled with intensive work to get the robot ready. I'm sure I was not the only one wondering if it would function. Before we loaded in on Wednesday, we had to remove the arm from our robot and do major surgery, and most of our arm controls were written Wednesday night, an amazing effort from our programmers!

Come Thursday morning, it seemed that our robot was (miraculously?) working, and we were looking forward to getting on the field and giving our drivers some practice. Then, we discovered that the issue we had tried to fix the previous afternoon was back... and the only thing to do was to disassemble the robot again, and fix it better. So we missed all of our practice matches, and we fixed the robot. While that was happening, our scouts were hard at work as well. We worked with three other local teams to collect match data using the collaborative system we created, and Thursday's practice matches were a great time to train. A few more students focused on collecting data interview style. At the very end of the day, we were able to get the robot into a few filler matches.

Friday was filled with learning, as our drivers improved and mistakes were found and fixed, and we played better and better throughout our qualification matches. Our Impact Award presentation crew had our interview with the judges, before which we de-stressed by making a whole lot of puns, and our presentation seemed to go well! The evening plan was to have a team dinner (from the Naughty Greek!) and meet to talk about our strategy for playoffs and who we would like to work with. The blizzard threw a wrench in our plans, and we adapted to a virtual meeting so that we could send students home before it got too bad out. In that meeting, we were able to use the data collected by scouts to make a comprehensive list of robots we'd like to work with.

After a delayed start on account of snow, we went into Saturday hoping that all the work from the day before would result in consistent robot performance during the last three qualification matches. Our robot had other plans! In fact, our robot broke in our first match so badly that we had to miss our second match in order to fix it. The team kept positive and supportive and everyone crossed their fingers we'd make it to our last qualification match. And we did! And we played well! I remember in that moment feeling so strongly that I wanted to see our robot on the field again. Luckily, I would get to, because we were chosen to join the 4th alliance as the third robot, and we felt so fortunate that the teams picking us put their trust in us after all of the challenges we'd had. Playoffs gave us another beautiful five matches, and our alliance landed in third place. After being eliminated, we were all saying to each other, "Do you remember where we were on Wednesday?"

   We had a blast watching finals, our team sharing the stands with our scouting alliance teams, and we danced and cheered and laughed and enjoyed it. After the medals for the winners and finalists came the Impact Award announcement, the last award and the last announcement of the whole event. The Impact Award is a big deal in FIRST. They say that "it honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST." Teams that win get to go to the world championship. And we had submitted, but I didn't think we'd win.

  And then the first word of the announcement was "unicorns" and we all collectively lost it. It's kind of hilarious to watch the video back and see us all process that it was us. And then we were crying and laughing, and if you haven't already realized we do a lot of that on this team.

So! We're going to worlds! We get to compete again! And I am so in love with our team. I'm so proud of every single one of my teammates. My team is amazing. Worlds is going to be amazing. I cannot believe how lucky I have been to have the privilege to lead the team these last few years. I cannot wait to do it for one more beautiful competition! There is so much work to do to get it to come together, and we'll keep you updated.

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U of Mn Raptor Center donations

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Hello, my name is Anthony and I’m a senior. I’m running a materials drive for a class assignment to help the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center continue their mission, which is “to ensure the health of raptors and the world we share.”

The Raptor Center performs rescues and rehabilitations on all species of raptors, and has requested the following items to help with their rehab work:

-nitrile gloves (size medium)
- paper towels
- hand soap
- 70% isopropyl alcohol
- 2” painters tape
-duct tape
- white printer paper
- fine point Sharpies
- ball-point pens
Please bring donations to the front desk and drop them off with Holly!

Thank you for your help,

Anthony