It was an exciting moment for public school parents, supporters and educators on the Coast last Saturday night.
At the Cabrillo Education Foundation’s 4th annual Starlight Soiree, a fundraising event to benefit all public schools in the Cabrillo Unified School District (CUSD), a check — in the amount of $250K and made out to "the children of our Coastside public schools” — was presented to a crowd of 200 attending the event at the Oceano Hotel. This allocation for next year will help support reading and literacy, science and teachers programs for Coastside public schools.
The Cabrillo Education Foundation is a nonprofit organization that operates independent of the Cabrillo Unified School District to benefit local public school students. Last year, CEF gave $90K, the first annual endowment, to Cabrillo schools. These proceeds from the $2 million endowment support some of the extras that are usually the first on the chopping block when it comes to budget cuts like fields trips, technology, science programs, and enrichment and elective classes.
Local schools in the Cabrillo Unified School District in much-needed funds in April 2012 thanks to a disbursement by the Cabrillo Education Foundation. The funds — garnered from individual donors and proceeds from the Starlight Soiree benefit event held last year —was distributed proportionally as Immediate Use Funds to each of the district's seven schools based on the student population.
“This year we also realized in order for any community based effort to be successful the entire community has to be involved and that’s why this board of volunteers made it their mission to make CEF a place for all supporters, no matter how big or small the donation, but really to let the community know that every dollar makes a difference and earns a seat at our table,” said Cabrillo Education Foundation board president Michele Hannegan. “The $250,000 was a result of those efforts and the Soirée was a celebration and a thank you to all of our donors who made this possible."
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