Dear CAMS Families,

This has been another fantastic year at CAMS! We hope you will continue to support CAMS PTSO and help us support student activities. A new membership form is now available online and a copy will be included in the summer mailer which will be sent to your home in August. Every dollar you contribute to CAMS PTSO will be used to support CAMS students and activities that help make CAMS a better place to be. We invite you to join us for our monthly meetings, held on the second Wednesday of each month, where we make plans and decisions about our annual events like Back-to-School Night and Open House, discuss ways to bring more funding to the school, determine how to disperse those funds, and plan some fun activities throughout the year.

This year, CAMS PTSO volunteers helped out as judges at the Science Fair and History Day. They acted as chaperones at dances and set up for evening events. They provided a couple birthday celebrations for teacher and staff. They organized student and parent orientation seminars and set up classes and exams to help prepare students for the SAT. CAMS PTSO provides funds for Parent Connection to keep you informed, and also publishes a monthly newsletter. We supply resources that help CAMS students attain their goals. This year we donated over $15K to help our students participate in some great activities. We are proud to help sponsor our History Day State Finalists and our National Finalist, our MESA State and National Finalists, our athletics department, our Dance Department, and our robotics program, where we saw teams win awards at two World Championship events. We are a public forum for parents and students to air their grievances and tell us about their successes. CAMS PTSO is there for you and your students.

CAMS PTSO held 2 schoolwide fundraisers designed to help your student raise funds for their class, their clubs, their teams and/or their projects. Students were again able to choose where to distribute the profits from their personal sales. Profits from the catalog fundraiser kicked off before Labor Day brought in over $9000 in sales and we distributed $3700 in profits to 20 different organizations. The biggest winner was the class of 2012 who made over $1500 for their prom fund. A See's candy fundraiser with a 50% profit margin was offered in the spring and brought in $3400 in sales. Another 17 organizations shared in profits of $1675, with the class of 2010 finally getting their prom fund going with profits of $320.

The new CAMS Foundation presented its first Showcase Event on Friday, October 17th, featuring a ‘Taste of CAMS' and the talents of our CAMS students. It was a memorable event with over a hundred students helping set up, 20 vendors providing food samples, and 10 great raffle prizes. Performances by CAMS orchestra and chorus groups were great and the CAMS Dancers were amazing! Thank you to all for making this happen!

The CAMS PTSO Board is comprised of a group of dedicated parents who want to be involved in their student's education. There are still a few openings in our roster and we would love to have you join us in our quest to make CAMS a better place to be. If you care to join our board or have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at 310-795-6368 or by email at cathyarakaki@hotmail.com. It is my pleasure to serve as your PTSO President and I look forward to another exciting school year.

Your PTSO President,
Cathy Arakaki