Get ready now for all the fun of Homecoming Weekend. We have a full slate of family-oriented activities planned for you. Volunteers are needed! Please check out the flyer and sign up today.

... for the Fall meeting of the Parents Association on October 17 at 7 pm. in the Academy meeting room. This is the only evening meeting of the year. Everyone is welcome!

The Sally Foster Gift Wrap and Gourmet Chocolate Fundraiser has something for everyone! This great fundraiser continues through September 22. Fifty cents of every dollar from your purchases benefits the Academy. Checks for catalog orders are payable to Harrisburg Academy, or visit the Sally Foster website for more information and to place your orders. Our school account number is 319783. All gift wrap materials were sent home in students' backpacks. If you have not received your Sally Foster materials, or have questions, please contact Sandra Yuen at 791-0434, or email drewsarayuen@aol.com. Pick up date for orders is Wednesday, November 1, from noon to 4 p.m.

Need a space away from the distractions of home to work on your photo album/scrapbook? On Friday, October 6, at 5 p.m., come to the John Butler Davis Gallery with your supplies for up to seven hours of scrapbooking fun. Cost is $10, which includes a variety of wraps, snacks, and beverages. To reserve your spot, please write a check payable to Harrisburg Academy and place it in Robyn Cutchall’s or Gretchen Qualls’ mailbox. Come join the fun!!!

Experience the magic of a live opera production at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City! Join Academy families, faculty, and staff for a performance of Puccini's La Boheme on Saturday, November 18, at 1:30 p.m. Cost for Family Circle front seats: $42 per person; cost for riding the 28- passenger Elite minibus: $50 per person. Bus departs the Academy at 7:30 a.m. and returns about 11:30 p.m. Please contact Art teacher Terry Bowie, 763- 7811, ext. 380, or tbowie@harrisburgacademy.org, if interested.

Psychologist and author Michael Thompson, who spent a day at the Academy last spring, is now conducting research for a new book, It’s a Boy! . Dr. Thompson has invited Academy families and faculty members to participate. His confidential online survey has questionnaires for mothers, fathers, teachers, high school boys, and younger boys. Filling out a questionnaire takes about 20 minutes, and most people who have filled them out find they lead to self-reflection about boyhood and parenthood. (Please note that boys under 18 need a parent to sign and fax a permission form to participate.)

... Shaun and Monica Gabbidon, parents of Jalen, second grade, and Jini, fourth grade, for winning the hot air balloon ride as part of the 2005- 06 Annual Fund. Steve Preston, parent of Sydney, kindergarten, won the Dominic Brandt painting of hot air balloons... Kindergartener Amanda Willigerod for reading 14 books and raising $250 for endangered animals in her own summer read-a-thon; Helen Haag, first grade, for appearing in the Spiderman 3 movie filmed this past summer in New York City; and seventh grader Rose Levenson for collecting more than 1,000 pairs of used eyeglasses to date for Lions Club and Lenscrafters. The collection continues until the end of October.