Sometimes picking up your student late is unavoidable. If you are going to be late picking up your child from school, please let us know.

During Covid, there is nowhere for your student to wait.

We cannot bring them to aftercare or have them wait in the office.  Students waiting to be picked up will be in the front vestibule.

How would you like to mentor a “new-to Horizons” family?

This is such an important role.  Welcoming a new family and discussing the calendar, the daily schedule, class photos, vision screening, and all the particulars that come up in the course of a year will help them to instantly feel a part of our community.  Mentors do not discuss curriculum or philosophy but are priceless in helping newbies know the ins and outs of navigating a year at Horizons.   There are committees to join, Council to attend, and many volunteer opportunities.  All mentors are given a script of what to discuss per calendar month. It’s easy, it does not take much time and it is so valued.

Please let Hope know if you are willing to be a mentor.

Hello, my name is Bryce Kallio. I am a freshman at Mountain Vista High School.

I am a member of the Board of Directors for TOgether Project, LLC.  One of our primary projects is administering TO Smiles.  Through TO Smiles, Total Orthodontics gives away ten sets of free braces to deserving children every year.  This is why I am reaching out to you today.  We are seeking applicants for our free braces and we would like to partner with you in this endeavor.  Please watch this informational video to learn more about what we do and to hear from past recipients about this life-changing program.

The general criteria for being considered for the free braces and the application may be found at https://total-orthodontics.com/togetherproject/tosmiles/  Please share our information with potential applicants as well as colleagues, friends, family, leaders of youth organizations, etc!

I realize that the COVID pandemic makes contact with families more difficult, but please consider these ideas to connect us to applicants:  post our video on your organization’s website and social media, post on personal social media pages, incorporate into newsletters and email blasts, post fliers and set out brochures that we can provide, etc.

To date, we have provided free braces to approximately 100 financially disadvantaged children.  Unique to our program is the fact that recipients of the free braces Pay it Forward by doing a 40 hour community service project of their own design. This creates a ripple effect of goodwill in our community.  Our recipients have already collectively donated over 4,000 hours of community service; that is two years of full time work!

Over the past 10 years, every major local news network has done a story on what we do (we used to call our program Smile for a Lifetime), and Dr. Theroux was even named a “Channel 7 Everyday Hero”.  However, we still struggle to get applicants—mostly because many think the opportunity is “too good to be true”, so they do not apply.  You can help change that!  Historically, approximately 50% of applicants have been approved for free braces, so the odds of being accepted are actually quite good!

Our amazing Executive Director for the past 9 years, Theresa Bakken, would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have and assist you in partnering with us.  TOP@tosmiles.com  is her email.  Thank you for helping us spread the word!

Finally, we are always concerned about our emails ending up in people’s SPAM folder, so could you please send me a quick email that you got this?  In addition, I have attached an English and Spanish flyer that can be distributed to potential applicants. Thank you.

**Save the Date – Fundraiser Update**

On Thursday, March 4th the delicious and generous Modern Market Eatery (1600 28th St #1212) is donating back 30% of Takeout orders to support a great cause — Horizons K8!

On behalf of Horizons K8 you’re invited to join us and eat out, not only in support of the school, but to show one of your Boulder restaurants some love too!

We ask that you RSVP here: www.groupraise.com/events/160081 (even if you’re not completely sure) so Modern Market Eatery knows roughly how many orders to expect & so you have access to all the event details.

We hope you can make it, and please feel free to forward this invitation to your friends and family. Thanks in advance for your support!

Karen
Horizons K8

DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 28

Let’s honor the resiliency and creativity of our students and staff as well as remember this one-of-a-kind school year through this year’s one-of-a kind edition of the yearbook.  This unique year will always be a part of the fabric of their school memories, and the yearbook is a great way to help remember it.  Don’t miss out!

Once you have your photos selected, please follow these steps to upload them to our yearbook files:

1. Click on the link below to join the site: https://horizonsk8yearbook.
2. If you already have a Shutterfly account, log in. You can also create a new account by clicking “Sign Up” and following the instructions.
3. The Horizons K8 Yearbook page will open. Scroll down until you see the album for your child’s class (alphabetical by teacher’s first name). There is also a “Specials” album available as well as “Whole School.”
4. Click on the blue link for the appropriate album.
5. Select “Add pictures” and then follow the prompts to choose photos from your device.
6. Once you’ve selected your photos, click “ADD” at the bottom right of the box.
7. You should see your photos added to the class album.
8. Click on each photo to open it. Hover over the photo and you will see an “Edit” option that will allow you to rotate or remove the photo.
9. IMPORTANT: ADD YOUR CHILD’S NAME or we will not be able to include it in the yearbook! Below the photo you will see a text box for comments. Type your child’s full name (as you’d like it to appear in the yearbook) into the text box and click the “ADD” button.
10. Remember to also add the names of any other HK8 students or teachers who appear in your photos!
11. Now you should see all of your added photos in the class album.

At this time where we see how vaccines may save lives….

Inoculation was introduced to America by a slave.

Few details are known about the birth of Onesimus, but it is assumed he was born in Africa in the late seventeenth century before eventually landing in Boston. One of a thousand people of African descent living in the Massachusetts colony, Onesimus was a gift to the Puritan church minister Cotton Mather from his congregation in 1706.

Onesimus told Mather about the centuries old tradition of inoculation practiced in Africa. By extracting the material from an infected person and scratching it into the skin of an uninfected person, you could deliberately introduce smallpox to the healthy individual making them immune. Considered extremely dangerous at the time, Cotton Mather convinced Dr. Zabdiel Boylston to experiment with the procedure when a smallpox epidemic hit Boston in 1721 and over 240 people were inoculated. Opposed politically, religiously and medically in the United States and abroad, public reaction to the experiment put Mather and Boylston’s lives in danger despite records indicating that only 2% of patients requesting inoculation died compared to the 15% of people not inoculated who contracted smallpox.

Onesimus’ traditional African practice was used to inoculate American soldiers during the Revolutionary War and introduced the concept of inoculation to the United States.