The adults sipped wine and bid at auction on Friday night and
the kids circled the high school track for two hours the next
morning.
The combination of the two events raised an estimated $25,000,
money the Healdsburg Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization
will use to help pay for field trips, assemblies and other academic
enrichment at the district’s two elementary schools next year.
The HES PTO held three community events last weekend, beginning
on Friday with Wine, Food & Silent Auction in the Vineyards, an
evening for adults at Rued Winery that garnered approximately
$10,000.
On Saturday the PTO raised another $15,000 at the annual Walk
for the Arts at the Healdsburg High School track and then moved on
for some family fun at the Spring Fling at the Fitch Mountain
campus.
“It went fantastic,” said Tara Smith, one of a group of 10
dedicated souls who make up the HES PTO. “We’re lucky to have such
a fun, great school.”
The wine and auction event was the first annual for the PTO.
Sonia Rued said Monday that 130 attended the event, more than she
was expecting. “I had a goal of about 100, and we had a little more
than that,” she said. “The weather played along wonderfully and it
just turned out perfect. The community was very supportive. We got
so many donations.”
Guests were treated to a variety of appetizers—pulled pork
sandwiches, smoked salmon cucumber bites, meats and cheeses and
soft serve ice cream to name a few—and wine before the live and
silent auctions began. Among the highest bids were for dinner for
10 at Icaria Creek Winery, two original watercolors by Charlene
Linkletter and a coffee table crafted by Omar Perez built from
reclaimed wood with a cement tabletop.
“For the first time, it was quite successful,” said Rued. “The
food was great, thanks to Molly and Omar Perez.”
The kids took their turn the next morning, arriving at the high
school at 9 a.m. sharp on a Saturday to do laps for two straight
hours in Walk for the Arts. They walked, jogged and sometimes
sprinted to music ranging from the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack
to the Hokey Pokey, stopping once each lap so they could be
tallied. Many parents joined in on the fun, including Fitch
Mountain campus principal Amber Stringfellow who walked with her
four-year-old son Wade.
“It’s a great event,” she said. “It involves students, and they
have a good time. It’s something they’ll remember.”
The event will also pay for many special activities for the
students in the coming year. Stringfellow said that many of those
events could not happen otherwise. “Unfortunately, when they do
budget cuts the non-core subjects are what we lose,” she said. “The
PTO helps us pay for supplies for enrichments and assemblies.”
Smith hopes that the fundraisers—along with other PTO family
events, like movie night, book swaps and bingo night—are becoming
traditions in Healdsburg that will continue long into the future.
The PTO has worked to craft manuals so future parents can easily
organize these events.
