Korematsu News

Don’t forget that Fred Korematsu’s birthday is tomorrow, which has been dubbed California’s “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution”.

This would be an excellent day to send the kids to school wearing a school T-shirt to show support of this wonderful day.

I’d love one or two more volunteers for tomorrow evening, so if anyone hasn’t yet volunteered and wishes to help out for an easy hour (or less) of work, please contact the president AT korematsupto DOT org and I’ll send you the simple instructions I just sent to the rest of the volunteers.

Friday’s are always fun, but frequently we have extra fun things happening at school. Here are tomorrows activities:

Spirit Day: Crazy Glasses Day

Do you have a completely obnoxious pair of neon sunglasses from the 80s lying in you closet somewhere? Tomorrow is the day to see if your child wants to wear them to school!

Afternoon Popcorn Sale

Right after school the ACCESS program will be selling bags of popcorn for $1. All the proceeds will be given to the school. So bring a dollar and be sure thank our ACCESS staff for putting on such a wonderful activity!

As many of you will remember, last year we helped celebrate California’s first “Fred T. Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution.” We had a wonderful evening, kicked-off by an assembly involving multiple dignitaries from the State Assembly, the DJUSD staff, the Board of Education, the Institute for Advancing Unity, and of course Karen Korematsu, the daughter of Fred Korematsu.

This year, on Fred Korematsu’s Birthday (January 30th), the KPTO and the Korematsu Elementary School staff are celebrating the accomplishments of Fred Korematsu again with another fantastic day and evening full of entertainment and activities. This year our activities will be kid-centric and focus on helping instill in them a sense of social justice, leadership and community involvement.

Daytime Activities

The day at school will be devoted to learning more about Fred Korematsu and his accomplishments in fighting for justice, so be sure to ask your students about what they learned that day.

Evening Program

6:00 PM: Group Assembly and Entertainment

Then in the evening, students and their families are invited to come to the MPR at 6:00pm to kickoff the KPTO’s evening celebration with a community assembly. The students and the audience will sing “What can one little person do?”, complete with the new lyrics written by this year’s school choir. Following the song will be a performance by magician and ventriloquist Tony Borders, whose performance will concentrate on school climate, social behavior and friendship.

7:00 PM: Activity Passport Stations Around Campus

Then, from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm, teachers and KPTO volunteers from the school will be running activity stations where each child will have the opportunity to learn more about social justice through educational activities combined with arts and crafts. Each student will be given a passport book to collect stamps in at the activity stations. Once all the activities have been completed, the kids will receive a souvenir to take home.

Please join us for a wonderful evening celebrating the life and lessons of Fred T. Korematsu.

Volunteers Needed

The KPTO needs a few more volunteers to help run the activity stations. These activities are easy to oversee and no upfront knowledge is required. If you’re interested in volunteering during the activity portion of the evening, please contact Wes Hardaker (the KPTO president).