Alpacas de la Patagonia

Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 10:00am – 5:00pm

660 Smith Road, Camano Island

Janis Smith, a Middle School math and science teacher at Villa Academy, is also a champion alpaca breeder! In 2005, she and her husband bought two female alpacas from Alpacas de la Patagonia on Camano Island. Over the past 5 years, the couple has developed a passion for this beautiful, gentle, and very intelligent animal.

At previous Villa Academy auctions, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Woodward have jointly donated, “An Afternoon at the Farm.”

This experience will be offered again, but why wait until auction time?

On September 18th Alpacas de la Patagonia is having an open house.

This is a rare opportunity to see one of the premier working alpaca farms in the county! Enjoy food and beverages, walk with alpacas, observe crias (baby alpacas) “pronking” in the fields, touch alpaca fleece, observe a breeder’s production sale, walk the 200 acres, listen to music, and more.

Food and beverages will be provided, so PLEASE RSVP to Janis Smith if you’d like to come and enjoy the day!
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Middle School English and drama teacher, Donald Mabbott, was recently featured on The East Portland Blog. The article, written by Mr. Mabbott, is a piece that supports the practice of listening to and extracting a student’s true voice through their writing.

Mr. Mabbott writes,

“For voice-immersed learning to take place among educators and students alike, the hierarchy, and the arbitrary morality of power must give way to a more liberating education—a pluralistic education, unfettered by distinctions of class, race, gender, religion, or ethnicity. Created, from it roots, by an inclusive, unification of voices, from which policy, procedure and curriculum design springs.”

Click here to read the full text

The Villa Academy administration, faculty and staff offer our heartfelt gratitude for the lovely luncheon and gift bags prepared for each of us last Thursday! In the midst of a busy day and week we were “transported” to an elegant restaurant and served like royalty. Thank you Parent Association Appreciation Committee for the planning, cooking, serving, organization of notes and  preparation of gift bags, and procuring extra help at recess and in the lunchroom to allow  faculty time to enjoy the lunch. Thank you Villa families for your kind notes, drawings and gifts.