Hello everyone and welcome to the 2022-23 school year! We hope everyone has had a great first week. We’ve hit the ground running this year, with some work done already and more important dates coming within the next couple of weeks! Keep reading to find out more.

We have recently updated the look of our Become A Member form. This should help us streamline things behind the scenes while still remaining just as easy for you to access. If you haven’t signed up for membership this year, go ahead and give it a click and do so. We can’t wait to have you! And in more fun SEPTA news, our mini-grants have been helping educators get the items they need to support their students. We’ve already granted one this year and we love knowing that students will thrive because of it.

And last but not least, we organized a Chalk the Walk event again this year. The weekend before school started, we invited people to come and chalk messages of kindness and encouragement for the hardworking staff and students that would be walking into the buildings that week. We’re happy to say that it was a success and brightened many a day. But you don’t have to take our word for it.. here are a few of the messages we saw on twitter about the cheery chalk displays.

We can’t claim all the credit for this though. While we organized it, it truly was a community effort to do this. SEPTA families showed up, yes, but also other families, teachers, even a youth group came together to decorate a walk. So a big shout out to everyone who helped to make the entry to a new school year a brighter one!

And now, on to our upcoming events…

First up, we have our 3rd annual “In It Together: A Walk for Inclusion” event. It’s coming up quick – less than two weeks! Join us on Saturday, September 10, 2022, at Bethel Park – Leech Shelter area from 9 am to noon. Registration opens at 9, the walk will start at 10am. Everyone in the community is invited to come out to this fun and inclusive event. There will be refreshments, prizes, information stations, and loads of fun if past years are a good indication – just bring yourself and your loved ones! We’d love to see you there if you can make it. You can sign up or donate here: https://givebutter.com/septawalk

A few days after that is our first meeting of the year. It promises to be both fun and informative. We’ve invited CPS Special Services to give a talk on the Who’s Who in their department. There will be pizza on hand and a playground, so feel free to bring your family and learn more about SEPTA and hopefully something new about CPS too and maybe meet up with some friends old or new. The meeting will be at the shelter at Fairview Park (by Fairview Elementary), on Tuesday, September 13 at 6pm.

We can’t wait to see everyone and see what the rest of this year has in store!