Foundation fundraiser sets out to inspire
April 2, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Last week, the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation held its seventh-annual fundraiser breakfast for a record 250 guests at the Snoqualmie Ridge Golf Club.
The foundation, which hopes to raise $100,000 this school year, collected about $58,000 for the breakfast fundraiser, before the auction. The entire amount raised from the breakfast will not be known until Friday. Last year, the foundation breakfast raised about $82,000.
Foundation members, teachers and students urged the community to donate to the foundation, so teacher grants could continue to receive funding.
“The mechanism for funding schools in our state is not working particularly well,” said Superintendent Joel Aune. “Every school district is struggling with resources and making ends meet. There are increasing demands with flat or declining resources.”
Emcee Dennis Bounds, of King 5 News, hosted the breakfast for the second year in a row.
“My presence here is an endorsement of public education,” Bounds said.
Aune called foundation and PTSA groups “key” in supporting school programs. Guest speaker Jeff Cirillo, a former Seattle Mariner, seconded Aune’s call for donations. After congratulating the Mount Si High School Jazz Band on its performance at the breakfast, Cirillo stressed the importance of education.
He told a story about teaching one of his three sons how to do laundry and change light bulbs. He called each life experience a tool he could add to his toolbox.
“Your teachers are constantly feeding you this information and teaching you things you can put in your toolbox,” Cirillo said.
“We want the kids of tomorrow to be leaders and represent the Snoqualmie area.”
In addition to raising awareness about fundraising, the foundation presented the educators of the year awards to Dana Stairs, a fifth grade teacher at Fall City Elementary School; Jerry Johnson, a Snoqualmie Valley school bus driver; and Joe Dockery, the Mount Si High School multimedia teacher.
Students from Dockery’s class made several short documentaries displaying how students across the district were utilizing projects funded by grants. One video featured the $3,455 grant for world drumming, designed to teach students about traditional African and Latin American cultures through drumming, moving and singing. In it, elementary school students beat a variety of complex tempos.
“I like the drum corps,” said Glenn Anderson, state representative for legislative district 5, who attended the breakfast. “It really is a creative form of expression that helps kids communicate with each other.”
This past year, the foundation financed about $52,000 in district-wide, classroom and professional development grants, a number nearing the $74,000 given last year.
Foundation grants fund a variety of projects and even send educators to the Summer Learning Academy for Teachers.
The Mount Si High School Jazz Band has received about $10,000 from the foundation over the past six years.
Adam Rupert, Mount Si High School Director of Bands, thanked the foundation for supplying the jazz band with a $4,000 vibraphone.
“It’s kind of like Santa Claus coming to you. Instead of having to go sit on his lap, he’s coming and saying, ‘My workshop can make whatever you want; just ask for it,’” Rupert said. “That’s a great feeling for any educator.”
Mount Si High School junior Katie Storrs described the newly financed, $4,000 natural helpers club, in which she and other leaders attended a retreat on peer counseling and suicide prevention.
“I learned when I should help and when I should get help,” Storrs said.
In addition to providing active boards in every classroom across the district, the foundation is hoping to fund a $26,000 grant to all of the elementary schools.
“This request is for $26,000 and makes for a powerful reading enrichment and intervention program. It targets all kids, from those who are struggling to those who are performing above grade level,” said Carolyn Simpson, vice president of the foundation.
Simpson went on to explain the foundation is focusing on natural helpers at the high school and fighting childhood obesity in middle-school students.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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