Support Schools through Education Foundation’s Annual Event

 — from Janet Brownell —

For over thirty years, the Orcas Island Education Foundation (OIEF) has been working to bring “excellence in education” to our public schools. This can only happen with the generous support of donors. In this school year, our donors have made an impact in classrooms K-12.  These are some of the ways your donations have made a difference:

• In the high school, you created a new drama program, and those students were part of the joyful “Across the Universe” production at the Orcas Center.
• You were part of sending the 6th grade class on a week-long field trip to the Olympic Peninsula
• Because of our donors, every child K-6 had an art class with a local artist for 16 weeks
• In the high school, you helped fund a STEM Guitar-making class
• You helped start a new Debate Club. And they are winning competitions around the state.
• In the middle school you bought books for “reading circles,” and you bought supplies for the school library.
• Your donations are helping to fund a new Farm-to-Cafeteria coordinator
• You sent 27 students to the Math Olympiad.

But now we are looking to next year. One of the biggest needs for our school district is additional High School science classes. Early this spring, OIEF committed to helping fund a new science teacher for two years. That commitment, however, means we need to raise even more money so we are able to support programs like drama, art, Farm to Cafeteria and so much more in 2016.

With that in mind, we hope you will consider attending the annual OIEF auction and dinner on June 28 at the Orcas Center starting at 5 pm. There will be a barbecue, a silent and live auction, a “Dessert Dash” and a few surprises. You won’t want to miss some really unique experiences in the auctions: a catered dinner by Roses’ chef Dante Miller, a consultation and trail sessions with running luminary Coach Dennis Dahl, tickets to a Sounders game, and pie-making class with pie “superstar” Abby Rueb – to name just a few. There will be so much more.

Tickets are $95 and can be purchased online at: www.oief.org OR in person at the Chamber of Commerce. Because OIEF has virtually no overhead – the money raised goes directly into our public schools. And if you can’t make it – we hope you’ll consider making a donation online. We want next year’s school experience to be even more remarkable than this year!