"Fribbit", a stuffed frog that my boys have agreed to part with, will be
our trophy that will be passed back and forth between our two schools.
Our summer collections will be the deciding factor for where Fribbit starts out at.
Hopefully we will be the starting school.

The best way to collect boxtops is to ask your neighbors and extended family members for boxtops.
I went to a friend of mine's house a month ago or so and raided his cabinets of all of his boxtops.
He has a few packages that have holes in them but he was happy to help and nothing a little tape won't fix.(grin)

St.P/St. F sent us a letter to tell us a little bit of what it's like in Torrington Connecticut and it's surrounding areas, so that we will know something about them.
Throughout the year we will be sending a little history and knowledge about our area also.
So help us out by looking around and see if you can find things that you would like to send St.P/St.F about us...it can be information about what you like to do when you're not in school
or what you like to do in school. Sports, hobbies, crafts, etc.

Let's get hoppin

***Here is a link to their website.***

Here is Torringtons letter to us. You can also download and print the letter with picture of them here:
download A little about St. Peter/St. Francis School and Torrington, Connecticut :

Greetings Willow Grove Elementary School!

We here at St. Peter/St. Francis are looking forward to our contest this year!
We are already snipping our boxtops, and saving them for whatever awesome incentive our volunteer moms come up with.

Our school is actually two schools. We combined two years ago,
and now the St. Peter campus serves the Pre-k through 2nd grade,
and the St. Francis campus has 3rd through 8th.

We are in Torrington, CT. Torrington is a pretty neat city, with a really neat history.
We will be telling you more about our city as the school year progresses.
Here is a little overview.

Torrington sits in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains. Our lowest point, the “valley” is 501 feet above sea level. Our highest point is 1325 feet above sea level. All of these hills make bike riding a great work out!

Torrington’s first settler arrived in 1735. His name was Ebenezer Lyman, Jr. In October of 1740, Torrington was incorporated as a town. We were agricultural for many decades, but became a factory town during the industrial revolution. Between 1880 and 1920, our population exploded. We went from 3,000 to 20,000 people! Many immigrants were settling in Torrington to take jobs at our factories and mills. In 1923, Torrington was chartered as a city. We currently have just under 36,000 residents.

Our public school system has one high school and one middle school, as well s 5 elementary schools and an alternative school. We have two small private schools in town as well.

Torrington boasts as the birthplace of abolitionist John Brown. He lived here as a child until his family relocated to Ohio. The house in which he was born burned down, but we are listed as a historical site on the Freedom Trail. We also have two homes listed in the historic records as stops on the Underground Railroad.

On a lighter note, Gail Borden developed condensed milk in Torrington in 1856 and produced it here for several years. Fire destroyed the mill in 1877 and a bronze tablet marks its site, in Burr Pond State Park.

Another Torrington claim to fame is our Warner Theatre, which was built by Warner Brothers in 1931 as a first-run theatre. Warner Brothers sold it in 1960, and by 1977 it was slated for demolition. A group of citizens got together and bought the theatre and it is almost completely restored to its original grandeur. It has presented some of the world’s finest talents, from the Vienna Boys’ Choir to Anne Murray, George Carlin to the Washington Ballet.

In 1955, two hurricanes, Connie and Diane, struck the Northeast within 5 days of each other. The result was a devastating flood, leaving a path of destruction all throughout Connecticut. The hardest hit areas were along the Mad and Still River, the Naugatuck River, the Farmington River, and the Quinebaug River. Torrington sits on the Naugatuck River. Many of our students’ grandparents were children or teens when the flood took place, and they still talk about it as though it were yesterday. It was a defining moment in many of their lives.

The last claim to fame that we are going to tell you about today is a quiet jewel in the heart of our city, called Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts. It was founded as Nutmeg Ballet in 1970, and dancers from all over the world come to study here. Several dancers trained at Nutmeg have gone on to dance in some of the most famous theatres in Europe and America.

Well, that’s a little about our city. We can’t wait to tell you more of all of the fun stuff we are learning about Torrington and about Connecticut!

Good luck with your Boxtops!

Sincerely,
St. Peter/St. Francis School