Through fundraising the Solmonese Parent Organization (SPO), of the J.C. Solmonese Elementary School, has been able to fill budget gaps and provide the school with necessary support over the years. Annually the group raises approximately $15,000 it puts towards different projects at the school, according to SPO co-chairman Jill Bercovitch-Blake. “We are unique in that we are all about the JCS and work to build a community and a sense of family in the school,” Bercovitch-Blake told the school committee on Monday, Oct. 15. Over the last three years the SPO has raised enough money to replace the outdated 27-year-old wooden playground structure that students have used for generations. “Hopefully it will be climbed on for the last time this year,” Bercovitch-Blake said. She told the board the structure will be replaced by the end of the school year and need volunteers to help break down the old and install the new equipment. “We need the help of the community to take it down and to build it,” Bercovitch-Blake said, adding how impressed she is in regards to the volunteers that have already stepped forward and offered a hand. “They are amazing,” she said. The SPO hosts two major fundraisers annually, a cookie-dough sale in the spring and the Muffin Meadow Contest, held at the JCS Fall Festival this past weekend. Other ways the group raises funds is through recycling juice pouches in conjunction with www.terracycle.net. They receive two to three cents for each pouch. Another way they bring in money is through the Box Top program (www.boxtops4education), earning 10 cents for each Box Top. Combined, the two programs bring in anywhere between $3,000-$4,000 each year, Bercovitch-Blake said. “Ten cents at time, it adds up,” she said. Activities the SPO supports include; bus fees for field trips, teaching supplies, and graduation night for graduating seniors at Norton High School. Bercovitch-Blake said the group works to create a positive learning environment for all students within the district. “In a community you help each other out,” Bercovitch-Blake said. For more information on the SPO email SPO.JCS@gmail.com.