Community Meeting Announcements October 16, 2024

Today’s After School Activities
Fitness Club- Pick up at 4:00 pm
Esports- Pick up at 5:00 pm
Thorncroft- Pick up at 4:30 pm

An additional Holiday has been added to the Hill Top Calendar
School will be closed for a Head of School Holiday on Tuesday, November 5th.

SAGA will Hold a Bake Sale on Friday, 10/18 (the school store will be closed Friday)

Picture Day- Tomorrow, Thursday 10/17
Picture Day is Thursday, October 17th. The photographer will be at Hill Top for the full day, taking both portraits and candid photos. Students will be brought outside during a class to have their headshots taken. Once the photographs are taken the photographer, Mark Tassoni, will be sending the pictures within 2 weeks to the parent emails on file. Information about purchasing will be included in his email.

Happy Unity Day
This morning we kicked off Unity Day with a community scarecrow building activity. The groups created scarecrows with the theme of acceptance and inclusion. Be sure to check out the awesome scarecrows around campus!

Thanks to Ms. Gargiulo and the Middle School Student Council for donating orange treats for everyone to enjoy!

Spirit of the Hawks
This morning, Mr. Van Dyke noticed a few students who took it upon themselves to clean up the hay after our scarecrow project. Congratulations to Noah K, Ben S, and Trevor V for earning a spirit of the hawk for Service!

Cross Country News
A big shout out to Julian S for taking the win in yesterday’s cross country meet! Stay tuned for further XC updates!

Pretzel Sale to Benefit World Central Kitchen
As you may have seen on the news or online, areas in the southeast, United States, and particularly western North Carolina, were hit particularly hard by Hurricane Helene. And it looks like other communities will be hurt by Hurricane Milton, which is approaching the gulf coast of Florida. In response to this, Upper School Student Council will be holding pretzel sales through October to help raise money for relief organizations. Money from the pretzel sales will go to the World Central Kitchen, which provides water and fresh food to areas in need, and Beloved Asheville, a community organization in Asheville, North Carolina, providing not only food and water, but also healthcare and shelter for those most affected by Helene. Pretzels will be $1 each.

Annual Middle School Halloween Spooktacular!
This event for 6th-8th grade students will be held on Friday, October 25 from 6pm-9:00 pm in the Mansion at Hill Top.

It will feature a dinner of chicken tenders and french fries, the annual "Ghoul Games" competition, pumpkin decorating, snacks, and some spooky (but not too spooky) stories.

If your student is interested in attending, please complete the permission slip here: Spooktacular Permission Slip!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me or Mike Cohen ([email protected]).

Mitzvah Circle Donation Drive
Please consider sending in items for the Mitzvah Circle Donation Drive. The NHS and E/T classes are collecting the following from now until October 25th:

New and Gently Used - clothing, books, toys, shoes, essential household items.
New ONLY - socks and underwear, school supplies, personal hygiene items, hats, gloves and scarves.

Simply send your generous donations in with your student to be placed in the bins by the front desk. They will be delivered to the Mitzvah Circle when the E/T students visit in November. You can learn more about Mitzvah Circle and what they do, by clicking here.

Summer Trek 2025
Next summer's Adventure Trek will take Hill Top Upper School students to Belize. Belize was the destination of the first Adventure Trek in 2006 and offers a huge array of experiences and activities for our students including investigating Mayan ruins, world class paddling and snorkeling on the world's second largest coral reef, hiking and ziplining through a pristine jungle, interacting with diverse cultures including Creole, Garifuna, Mestizo and Maya, a night tour of the Belize Zoo (renowned for its protection of jaguars and other species) and more. The dates of the trip are June 14-21, 2025. Please contact Mr. VanDyke- [email protected], if you would like to attend the meeting.

HawkTalk
In case you missed our September HawkTalk Newsletter or want to look back at previous monthly issues, here's a link to view them.