Funds raised will support garden, music, Spanish and field trips
The Great West Side School Raffle and Community Social is coming. According to a press release from the parent volunteers of the West Side Committee for Enrichment Programs and the Felta Education Foundation, each year the parent volunteer committee must raise at least $75,000 to keep the garden, music, art, Spanish and field trip programs thriving.
“This is the first year. We’ve broken with tradition,” said Lindsay Woolman, the West Side / Felta Education Foundation Volunteer Coordinator. “In the past, we did a gala fundraiser sit down dinner with live and silent auctions. But, recently we found that model is difficult to pull off. So many schools are doing similar things and given our school population, we thought it would be more inclusive and bring in people from the community that wouldn’t necessarily attend a gala. We felt like we wanted to change things up a bit this year.”
The Felta Education Foundation is West Side’s parent volunteer group and they brainstormed to find a new fundraiser for the year to support the small, rural school west of Healdsburg.
“We wanted everyone in school to attend and to have something everyone could bring their extended family to, along with members of the community,” Woolman said.
The event will take place on Friday, March 2 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Sonoma Cider in Healdsburg. The raffle drawing will take place at 6:30 and this year there are three grand prizes: a Squaw Valley vacation plus a $300 gift card, a Spa and Wellness package and a Wine and Dine Package.
Participating restaurants include Single Thread, Front Porch Farm, Campo Fina, Diavola, Flying Goat Coffee, Agave, Spinster Sisters, Valette, SHED, Omelette Express, Baci and Catelli’s.
“The fact that we have these great prizes we’ve been able to procure, the Squaw Valley package, the wellness package and then the amazing wine and dine package,” Woolman said. “I think it’s incredible we’ve got these restaurants. Healdsburg is just such a community with the restaurants and wine industry. We’re just so fortunate to have access to what we do. For $20 they’re able to win a prize that’s worth quite a bit more and be able to experience some really neat things.”
The social at Sonoma Cider, which is donating the space, will feature a no-host bar and appetizers made by the families of West Side. If attendees want to stay for dinner and live music after the social is over, they are encouraged to make reservations with Sonoma Cider.
“The gathering is just a social event that is an opportunity for parents, their friends and members of the community to come in, mingle, get to know a little about what we provide the students as far as enrichment and get to know us better.”
While the fundraiser always focuses on enrichment programs, this year they are hoping to bolster the garden program and the Spanish program specifically.
“The garden is thriving, we have a new instructor who is creating a program about native plants, it’s an amazing program. We also have purchased a salad bar and hopefully some of the things harvested in the garden will go into that salad bar,” Woolman said. “We also want to bolster the Spanish program. It just started last year and eventually we’d like to get that up and running for all grades.”
Tickets may be bought from students or at rafflecreator.com/pages/20205/the-great-west-side-school-raffle. Raffle tickets are $20 or six for $100. You need not be present to be win.
Note: there are no physical tickets being sold. Those who purchase tickets online using a card will receive their raffle numbers immediately via email. Those who purchase tickets with cash or check will provide a student with their name and email information and once the students’ lists are returned, an email confirmation will go out with ticket numbers. Those without email must provide their telephone number and will receive a call.
The Great West Side School Raffle and Community Social will take place on Friday, March 2 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Sonoma Cider at 44 Mill Street, Healdsburg.
