The Monte Vista Invitational - Home of the Eliminator!

Dear Parents and Students:

Uniforms: Parent volunteers will be distributing uniforms after practice this Friday (tomorrow) in front of the Cross Country team shed (behind football snack shack). If you have not already emailed your online receipt for any uniform purchases, please do so right away as it makes the distribution go much smoother. (All uniforms paid by check so far have been logged). Paying on Friday? Print and fill out the form and bring cash or check made to Monte Vista Cross Country.

Ed Sias Invitational This Saturday:

• Buses There: Rise and shine! All athletes must travel to the meet by bus. All boys report to school at 6:45am for the first bus, departing Monte Vista at 7 sharp. Do NOT be late. All girls report by 8:45am for the second bus, departing at 9 sharp. The meet is in Martinez.  The first race, the boys' frosh race, is at 9:00am followed by other boys' races. The first MV girls' race is at 11:55am.
• What to Bring: Uniform, sweats, suncreen, and plenty of water, snacks, and lunch (packed in an insulated bag if possile).
• Race Assignments: Download the race assignment PDF from the team's website. This is the final 2-mile race for varsity of the season. From here on out, it'll be 3 miles. And in less than a month, the entire team will be racing 3 miles.
• Meet Info: Visit the Ed Sias Invitational Website for a downloadable meet bulletin, race schedule and other info. Street parking is available for spectators, but allow ample time to find it and walk to course.
• Buses Back / Dismissal: Buses will stay until the conclusion of the awards and the "dance off," an Ed Sias Invite tradition (approximately 2pm). Boys may leave with parents at the end of the boys' races (~11:30am), but obviously are encouraged to stay the day and support the girls and attend the awards ceremony. Girls will stay throughout (boys have the option to leave due to their early arrival) and may either take a bus back to school or may depart with their parents at the conclusion of the awards ceremony.
• Team Area: Athletes will be under Monte Vista tents. Parents are encouraged to attend the meet and establish their own "fan base camp" elsewhere. (Kids need some space and separation to prepare for their races.) Any parent willing to bring and share a tent will be well liked!
• Photos: If you take any good pictures this season of your own athlete or others, please share them with Coach Davis. Email them to mvrunningpix@gmail.com. The more help we get with great photos, the better our team slide show will be at the team banquet. Thanks!

Team Budget Fundraising Status: As of today, per Coach Davis, we are at 52% of our $29,400 goal for parent donations. Our current total includes all checks turned in at the parent meeting and practice. If you have not yet donated, please donate today to help us achieve our bare minimum budget. The team is almost completely funded by parent donations. We are counting on everyone to give at least something if able. The suggested amount is $245 (based on our budget divided by the number of athletes). Additional amounts welcome! Donate online or write a check to MV Cross Country and turn in to any coach. THANK YOU to those who've already donated!

Voluntary Online Donation Progress Tracking: For privacy reasons and also to not put pressure on people to donate, the school is not legally allowed to share with the team the names of donors or amounts donated online. The school can only give us a report showing the total raised. So if you made your team donation online, but did not turn in a printed receipt to a coach, we don't know about it. If you would like to voluntarily let the team know what you have donated so that we can keep an accurate team total without bothering the school bookkeeper for frequent reports of our total raised, please email me or Coach Davis your webstore receipt. We will then remove you from email donation reminders. You are under no obligation to donate or to tell us if you have donated. Our parent fundraising campaign to support the team's basic budget is voluntary. That said, the more families who participate, the easier it will be for our team to raise the $29,400 in parent donations we need to run the program for all of our athletes.

Go Mustangs!

Courtney Corda

Team Parent on behalf of the coaching staff

P.S. Monte Vista Athletic Boosters Explained: Some parents have asked, "what's the difference between giving to Monte Vista Athletic Booster (MVAB) and to Monte Vista Cross Country?". Donations to the Monte Vista Athletic Boosters (MVAB) are NOT the same thing as donations to Monte Vista Cross Country. MVAB is a separate non-profit organization that supports athletics at Monte Vista. The MVAB is not run by the school. It is not legally part of the school. Unlike the MVAB, the Monte Vista Cross Country team is part of the school. It is administered by the school (but the money comes mainly from parent donations). To give you an analogy, the MVAB is like an elementary school's foundation. We encourage you to donate first to the cross country team directly and then, if you can, to donate to the MVAB also. Our cross country team budget is based on the estimate that close to 100% of our team's families will donate the suggested amount of $245 to Monte Vista Cross Country and that at least 18 of our team's families will ALSO purchase MVAB "VIP" Cards (a portion of those proceeds will come back to the cross country team and are included in our budget).