Generously given dollars power education

Local school fundraising organization SchoolPower partnered with the Surf & Sand Hotel on April 25 to honor the many business donors who provide vital support to education throughout the year.

Event Chair and Trustee Cynthia Houalla described the reception as a “feel-good event. Jim Rogers started it and thanks to the Surf & Sand, it’s grown. Our generous friends in the local business community deserve this.”

The 27-year-old Laguna Beach Education Foundation receives strong support from school families, but also relies on local businesses to contribute close to half the dollars raised annually.

Donations of auction items, directory advertising and event underwriting dollars make up a strong percentage of the $650,000 SchoolPower provides to the Laguna Beach Unified School District for educational programs each year.

Superintendent Dr. Robert Fraisse thanked the Laguna Beach community for its generosity and support at the event, and introduced a short film called “Simply Integrated,” which illustrates the district’s vision for integrated technology and is the subject of this year’s SchoolPower Fund-A-Need campaign.

“We wanted to share some of those details (about SchoolPower funded programs) with our local business partners,” SchoolPower President Jennifer Meiswinkel said.

“We are expanding our efforts to involve the business community in all aspects of our organization.”

Advertisers competed for the SchoolPower Directory’s most coveted space near the evening’s close. The free directory is distributed to every family in the school district, and has become an indispensable resource for Laguna Beach parents and children.

“In hundreds of cases where kids have gone on to excel in academics, athletics, music or the arts, SchoolPower was there to make a difference,” Mark Christy of Hobie and Tuvalu said.

“Local businesses being supported by an organization that supports the local schools is a win for everyone involved,” Linda Pix of Stems Flowers said.

She said she is excited to work more closely with SchoolPower in the future.

“If business donors get it “” whether they have school kids or not “” then as a parent, that goes two-fold. I left the party inspired to do more, especially with the district’s ‘Simply Integrated’ technology plan,” parent and first-time SchoolPower trustee Jill Lockhart said.

For more information about SchoolPower, call (949) 494-6811 or visit www.lbschoolpower.org.