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Dining together, uniting families

Fox Chapel Middle School's PTA helps collect pledges that parents will sit down with their kids for supper and discussion.

By MATHEW WASSERMAN
Published September 23, 2005

SPRING HILL - If family members need a little more encouragement to spend time together, there couldn't be a better motivator than a day of the year dedicated specifically to it.

As students are being dropped off and picked up at Fox Chapel Middle School today, PTA members and volunteers will be soliciting pledges from parents to eat dinner as a family on Monday, which is National Family Day.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse created Family Day in 2001 as a way to inspire parents and children to eat supper together. The center uses this type of family communication as a way to lessen child and teen substance abuse.

The Fox Chapel Middle School PTA understands the effectiveness of family contact in dealing with and preventing substance abuse, but also thinks Family Day should just be enjoyed.

"We're interested in anything that gets parents more involved with their children's lives," said Fox Chapel Middle School PTA president Shari Noriega. "So we will hopefully put the idea in their heads that having dinner together is a good way to do that."

The PTA is promoting Family Day by putting up posters throughout the school and trying to spread the word by direct contact.

"We'll be standing out there during the dropoff and pickup times with a poster that parents can sign, which will pledge that they will have dinner with their children on Family Day," said Noriega. "Once they sign, it, they have do it."

When the National PTA passed the idea down to local PTAs, the Fox Chapel organization saw it as a springboard to regular and consistent parent and child contact.

"We think it will encourage parents to spend more time with their kids on that day," said PTA member Lynne McHugh, "and, hopefully, as many other days as possible."

[Last modified September 23, 2005, 02:50:29]