AVS 55th annual dinner, auction

Alexander Valley School is rolling out the red carpet for their
55th Annual Spaghetti Dinner and Auction night on March 5 at the
Alexander Valley Hall in Geyserville.
Every year the students prepare months in advance by creating
projects to auction off or sell to raise money for programs that
are no longer funded by the state. The live and silent auction will
also offer items donated from businesses within the community.
“This is our biggest fundraising event of the year,” said
Principal Annie Holden. “Without this we wouldn’t have things like
art, music and computers.”
This year’s theme for the event, “Alexander Valley School goes
Hollywood” will include film decorations and decor including
wall-to-wall posters with Oscar nomination photos of all of the
students.
“Every year we think of a different theme,” said Holden. “The
whole idea of the theme is that it creates excitement around the
event.”
The spaghetti dinner will be cooked and served by parents and
children, salads will be tossed with lettuce from the student
garden, local wines will be poured and homemade desserts will be
offered.
“We put up flyers that everyone at school made so that people
know about it,” said sixth grader Eli Kroger.
Attendees can donate money by participating in the live or
silent auction, which will include items from local wineries,
dinner at Cyrus restaurant in Healdsburg, VIP Giants tickets and
much more. The students will also open their ‘Country Store’ to
sell smaller items.
Principal Holden acknowledged that times are hard financially
but said that it didn’t stop people from giving donations. “We got
some fantastic donations this year and we hope that people will
come out and support in any way they can,” she said. “There is
something for everybody.”
Sixth grader Rupert Holden said that this year his class
handcrafted a chicken coop complete with chickens that will be up
for auction, and that the kindergarten class built a puppet
theater.
“We encourage community members to come,” Holden said. “This
community in particular, there are a lot of people whose children
came here when they were younger, some of the people who live here
came when they were younger and so it is very much a community
event.”
Holden told the stories of the first years of the event, more
than 50 years ago, when it was just a spaghetti dinner. She said
that the way the story goes, there was a plate of brownies leftover
at the end of the evening that they thought would be fun to auction
them off.
“The brownies raised more money than the dinner and ever since
we have had a spaghetti dinner and an auction,” she laughed.
The Alexander Valley Hall doors open at 5:00 p.m. on March 5.
Tickets for the event will be sold at the door, $10 for adults and
$5 for children ages 5-12.