Archived Emails
Our email is jamesriverdebate@gmail.com
September 2020
9/14
Hello JR Debate Students and Parents,
I am Ellie Bowman and I am excited to be serving as Director of Communications for this school year. To increase communication and awareness going into this virtual year, I wanted to start a weekly/biweekly newsletter to keep everyone in the loop, provide updates on wins and team accomplishments, and create a space for students and parents to ask questions. This email contains a lot of important information for this year, I would recommend saving this information.
As Director of Communications, one of my main goals was to create a website with access to debate resources and information. I am so excited to announce that the website has been published and is accessible for everyone!
https://sites.google.com/ccpsnet.net/jamesriverdebate/home
Our amazing debate coaches are Coach Castelo and Coach Perry. Both of them have done so much for our team and their students and we are so lucky to have their guidance and support.
Mrs. Castelo: shannon_castelo@ccpsnet.net
Coach Perry: zach.perry@richmond.edu
Next weekend, some of our veteran members will be attending the Holy Cross Tournament. We are so excited for this competition. Every time our team competes, we are required to recruit judges for the competition. If any parents are interested in volunteering for this competition please let us know!
This year we have an awesome student leadership team! I am providing their contact information below. Please feel free to reach out to them if you have any questions or concerns!
Captain: Hannah Gross
Phone #: (804)882-0711
Email: hhgross120@gmail.com
Lincoln Douglas Lead: Maddy Boger
Phone #: (804)350-7745
Email: maddyelizabeth21@gmail.com
Public Forum Lead: Dylan McEntyre
Phone #: (804)523-0462
Email: dylan31031@gmail.com
Student Congress Lead: Lexi Gambardella
Phone #: (804) 307-3932
Email: lexilou03@yahoo.com
Director of Fundraising: Kayleigh Floyd
Phone #: (804)389-0116
Email: kayleighnfloyd@gmail.com
Director of Communications: Ellie Bowman
Phone #: (804)245-3685
Email: feebecat@gmail.com
Social Media/Outreach and Recruitment: Zoe Broderick
Phone #: (804)382-5135
Email: zoeabroderick@gmail.com
Our forensics team, speech and debate, also has many social media pages to help everyone stay in the loop!
Instagram: @jrhsdebate
Twitter: @jrhs_forensics
Facebook JRHS Speech and Debate
Tik Tok: @jrhsforensics
STUDENTS: Don't forget to sign up for Remind and Canvas!! This is REQUIRED for all students.
CANVAS: http://rmd.me/aw22v0s7Alu
REMIND: TEXT @jrdeba to 81010
Thank you students and parents for everything you do for our Debate Team. I am so excited for this upcoming year! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Best,
James River Debate
9/21
Hello James River Debaters and Parents,
Happy Monday! We are so excited for our first competition at the Holy Cross Tournament this weekend! We are still searching for parent judges, so if you are interested please let us know if you can help out this weekend.
Our website has a lot of updates and important information on it, you can find out more about us here.
On the weekend of October 2-3, we have our Maverick and Yale Tournaments. If you are interested in competing in the Maverick Tournament, please fill out this link by Thursday at 3:00 pm. This is a hard deadline. If any parents are interested in judging either of these tournaments please let us know! Those competing at Yale have already been notified.
Our practice schedule for the rest of this week is as follows, to join these practices check out this link.
Monday and Wednesday: Public Forum and Congress, 3:00-5:00
Tuesday and Thursday: Lincoln Douglas, 3:00-5:00
Friday: Contact Mrs. Castelo, shannon_castelo@ccpsnet.net
This past weekend our Speech Team competed at Duke! We are so proud of them!
Our forensics team, speech and debate, also has many social media pages to help everyone stay in the loop!
Instagram: @jrhsdebate
Twitter: @jrhs_forensics
Facebook JRHS Speech and Debate
Tik Tok: @jrhsforensics
STUDENTS: Don't forget to sign up for Remind and Canvas!! This is REQUIRED for all students.
CANVAS: http://rmd.me/aw22v0s7Alu
REMIND: TEXT @jrdeba to 81010
Thank you so much to the Richmond Forum, our parents, and students. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Castelo, our leadership team, or respond to this email.
Best,
James River Debate
9/29
Dear JR Debaters and Parents,
This weekend some of our varsity debate members competed at the National Level at the Holy Cross Tournament! Lexi Gambardella placed 6th and Zoe Broderick placed 8th in Student Congress! We are so proud of all of our competitors. This weekend we are attending the Yale and Maverick Tournaments! If any parents are interested in judging please let us know!
Our website has a lot of updates and important information on it, you can find out more about us here.
This week, our practice schedule is the same and everyone interested is encouraged to attend. Everyday we will start in the Main Meeting room and then move into the respective rooms. Attached are the Google Meet links for practices:
9/29: Lincoln Douglas 3:00-5:00 pm
9/30: PF and Congress 3:00-5:00 pm
10/1 Lincoln Douglas 3:00-5:00 pm
10/2
Contact Mrs. Castelo
Our forensics team, speech and debate, also has many social media pages to help everyone stay in the loop!
Instagram: @jrhsdebate
Twitter: @jrhs_forensics
Facebook JRHS Speech and Debate
Tik Tok: @jrhsforensics
STUDENTS: Don't forget to sign up for Remind and Canvas!! This is REQUIRED for all students.
CANVAS: http://rmd.me/aw22v0s7Alu
REMIND: TEXT @jrdeba to 81010
Thank you so much to the Richmond Forum, our parents, and students. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Castelo, our leadership team, or respond to this email.
Best,
James River Debate
October 2020
10/5
Dear JR Debaters and Parents,
This weekend we competed at the National Circuit Maverick Competition! Our Varsity Pf competitors, Dylan McEntyre and Kayleigh Floyd advanced all the way to quarter finals! We are so proud of all of our competitors. Thank you so much to all of our volunteer judges! If you have any interest in judging or know someone who would be, please let us know, we want your help!
Our website has a lot of updates and important information on it, you can find out more about us here.
This week, our practice schedule has changed and everyone interested is encouraged to attend. Everyday we will start in the Main Meeting room and then move into the respective rooms. Attached are the Google Meet links for practices, but you can also find them on our website:
10/5: PF and Congress 3:00-5:00 pm
Main: https://meet.google.com/prf-qbxg-wki
Congress: meet.google.com/bpg-jbnj-ecb
10/6: LD 3:00-5:00 pm
https://meet.google.com/vdi-byfa-kzx
10/7: Congress Homeroom
TBA, check the website
10/7: PF 3:00-5:00 pm
https://meet.google.com/vzc-azds-siu
10/8: LD 3:00-5:00 pm
https://meet.google.com/see-xppi-ijj
10/9: Contact Mrs. Castelo
Our forensics team, speech and debate, also has many social media pages to help everyone stay in the loop!
Instagram: @jrhsdebate
Twitter: @jrhs_forensics
Facebook JRHS Speech and Debate
Tik Tok: @jrhsforensics
STUDENTS: Don't forget to sign up for Remind and Canvas!! This is REQUIRED for all students.
CANVAS: http://rmd.me/aw22v0s7Alu
REMIND: TEXT @jrdeba to 81010
Thank you so much to the Richmond Forum, our parents, and students. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Castelo, our leadership team, or respond to this email.
Best,
James River Debate
-------------10/5-----------
Dear JR Debaters and Parents,
We wanted to recognize Rowan Sharma placing third in the Student Congress! This is outstanding and we are so proud of him and all of our competitors.
For all debaters wanting to compete at the East Mountain Competition on the 16th through the 18th, please fill out this google form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-envp7YU8BeKaJyMUZxxG5OL7saV60kn8VU0250p-LOq6Uw/viewform
Reminder to Leadership Team:
All leadership is required to compete at least once a month.
We will have a Leadership Meeting on Friday during Homeroom.
If you have any questions or concerns please reach out!
Thank you again,
James River Debate
10/9
Dear JR Debaters and Parents,
In the midst of virtual learning, it is really important to give back to our teachers. We have decided that it would be awesome for our debaters to send virtual cards appreciating teachers that make this difficult time a little bit easier.
This is the website we recommend, but if you have an alternative you would like to use that would be great.
https://www.punchbowl.com/ecards/d/distance-teaching
In this letter, please include the name of James River Debate somewhere in the letter. This can be in the closing, you can mention our Teacher Appreciation Initiative, or whatever you are most comfortable with. We want our teachers to know that not only do their students appreciate them, but so does the James River Debate Team!
In the process of making the E-Card, there is an option to send a virtual gift card. This is not required nor are we asking you to complete this step of the process. If you would like to attach a gift card, by all means go ahead, but if you wish to not complete that step please do not worry or feel any pressure to do so.
Once you have completed this, please fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/RRESR9umhm63Lzyo6
Please complete this by next Friday, thank you all so much for everything you do for our team and our James River Teachers! Have an amazing weekend, we can't wait for our competition next weekend!
Best,
James River Debate
10/11
Dear JR Debaters and Parents,
This weekend we are competing at the East Mountain Top of the World Tournament. We are so excited to debate this weekend. Later this week we will send out the schedule for this competition as well as post it on our website! If any parents would like to judge or help out, please let us know!
Last week we sent out an email regarding Teacher Appreciation Letters, if everyone could double check that email and complete this it would be greatly appreciated!
This week our practice schedule is as follows:
10/12 PF and Congress, PF Guest Speaker!!!!! Please be prepared with questions!
10/13 LD
10/14 PF
10/15 Congress, Rapid Time
10/15 LD
10/16: Contact Mrs. Castelo
Our forensics team, speech and debate, also has many social media pages to help everyone stay in the loop!
Instagram: @jrhsdebate
Twitter: @jrhs_forensics
Facebook JRHS Speech and Debate
Tik Tok: @jrhsforensics
STUDENTS: Don't forget to sign up for Remind and Canvas!! This is REQUIRED for all students.
CANVAS: http://rmd.me/aw22v0s7Alu
REMIND: TEXT @jrdeba to 81010
Thank you so much! We hope you have a great week! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Castelo, our leadership team, or respond to this email.
Best,
James River Debate
10/20
Dear JR Debaters and Parents,
This past weekend we competed at the East Mountain Top of the World Tournament. We had such an amazing experience and had so much fun. This was our last competition debating Medicare for All. The next Public Forum topic deals with no first use and the next LD topic deals with the government guaranteeing jobs.
To get ready for the new PF topic, Mr. William Newmann helped out our team with understanding this new topic. We wanted to thank him so much for his time!
This week we do not have practice!
Our forensics team, speech and debate, also has many social media pages to help everyone stay in the loop!
Instagram: @jrhsdebate
Twitter: @jrhs_forensics
Facebook JRHS Speech and Debate
Tik Tok: @jrhsforensics
STUDENTS: Don't forget to sign up for Remind and Canvas!! This is REQUIRED for all students.
CANVAS: http://rmd.me/aw22v0s7Alu
REMIND: TEXT @jrdeba to 81010
Thank you so much! We hope you have a great week! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Castelo, our leadership team, or respond to this email.
Best,
James River Debate
10/26
Dear JR Debaters and Parents,
We hope everyone enjoyed this past week off! This email contains a lot of crucial information regarding the next two months, so please continue to reference this email and our website.
Richmond Debate Opportunity: Middle School Mentoring Program
If you are interested in mentoring Middle School students in debate, please check out the instagram post below by the Richmond Forum. This is an amazing opportunity for college apps but also just to help the debate community as a whole!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGszZuDlwnp/
Here is the flipgrid link mentioned in the post: https://flipgrid.com/198fb34d
Dallastown Tournament
The weekend of the 13th and 14th of November we will be attending the Dallastown Wildcat Invitational! If you are interested here is the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJ3HJ0INbEXG8aFvu8xbBvZAb-WLhUl6e4vaJWv3aWy3HJxg/viewform
GMU
The weekend of the 4-6 of December we will be attending the National George Mason Tournament. Please keep this date in mind, more information to come soon.
A lot of tournament information and updates will be on the canvas page, please be sure you have joined this. It is always linked at the bottom of every email.
Virtual Halloween Party
There is a speech halloween party on Tuesday! Check out their instagram for more info: https://www.instagram.com/jrhsspeech/
Fundraising
Just because we are virtual does not mean funding a debate is an easy task! Next week fundraising letters will be sent out, keep this in the back of your mind as we move forward! Our team never wants to make funding an issue for anyone to compete, we believe that debate is a sport for everyone, regardless of background. This is why all of our tournaments are free to our competitors, with this being said we still need to fundraise this team!
Here is the practice schedule for this week:
10/26 PF and Congress
10/27 LD
10/28 PF
10/29 Congress: Rapid Time, Lexi will update on google meet link
10/29 LD
10/30 Contact Mrs. Castelo
Our forensics team, speech and debate, also has many social media pages to help everyone stay in the loop!
Instagram: @jrhsdebate
Twitter: @jrhs_forensics
Facebook JRHS Speech and Debate
Tik Tok: @jrhsforensics
STUDENTS: Don't forget to sign up for Remind and Canvas!! This is REQUIRED for all students.
CANVAS: http://rmd.me/aw22v0s7Alu
REMIND: TEXT @jrdeba to 81010
Thank you so much! We hope you have a great week! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Castelo, our leadership team, or respond to this email. If ANY parents at all are interested in judging, please reach out, we want your help!
Have an amazing week,
James River Debate