Bill’s Word: Giving Back!
Dear Friend,
As president of the AEF, I have had the privilege to give hundreds of Adopt A Classroom gift cards to teachers across our community. I have seen teachers cry, jump up and down, and show complete surprise when given $500 for their classrooms. Each adoption is unique coming with an interesting background story. However, my favorite and most powerful adoption occurred last Thursday. I was to give an adoption to the outstanding Wood Middle School music instructor, Mr. Reis. In the office for the presentation is a 16 year old Encinal student (complete with skateboard and backpack). He tells me he is there for the adoption. He introduces himself in a soft-spoken way and informs me that he won $1000 that he could give to any charity he chose. He decides to adopt Mr. Reis and his art teacher at Encinal, Mr. Haber. What a thrill to stand in those two classrooms with Josh as the teachers received their generous gift from Josh. It was a pleasure meeting Josh. My only regret was I didn’t get the chance to be Josh’s principal at Encinal when I was there.
In addition to Josh’s wonderful story, we presented many other Adopt A Classroom presentations this month, from a PE teacher at the Academy of Alameda to the sports medicine teacher at Alameda High and a 3rd grade teacher at Ruby Bridges, all incredibly thankful for this amazing support from our community. It’s not just teachers who recognize the value of these gifts – check out this article in Alameda High’s student newspaper, The Oak Leaf.
This brings our total adoptions for the school year to 162! We will be making two more presentations in February and March. If you would like to adopt a teacher, or make a donation for general support of this program, please visit our website.
Save the Date! Our 32nd annual Salute to Education event is coming on April 24th. Salute to Education presents an opportunity for community members, teachers and parents to celebrate the innovation that goes on in our public schools. Rhythmix’s Cultural Center provides a sophisticated and urban setting for an evening of wine, good food and conversation. Tickets will be on sale soon and we hope you will join us! In the meantime, if you would like to advertise in our keepsake program, please contact our office at info@AlamedaEducation.org / 510-337-7189.
The work we do would not be possible without the support from local businesses and community members. To all of you who responded to our Year End appeal, thank you. Your support enables us to do things like donate 100% of each Adopt A Classroom to teachers, sponsor free after-school individualized academic counseling to 700 high school students, and provide scholarships for middle school sports and enrichment classes and camps.
We were pleased last week to attend the grand opening of the new Safeway store at Alameda Landing and receive a grant to support our Middle School Sports program. Our business community recognizes the value of strong public schools and well-educated students. In addition to Safeway, we have recently received vital support from the Alameda Rotary Club with a grant to support the Equipped 4 Success school supply drive and the Bank of Marin for general support. The Park Street Business Association sponsored a shopping night that that raised enough funds to adopt four classrooms in December. Finally, thank you to the Olympic Club Foundation for a grant supporting Middle School Sports. Please check out our grants page and business sponsorship page and thank these local businesses!
Registration has begun for winter/spring after school classes and planning is underway for summer camps. This summer we are looking at adding exciting new camps like photography, solar/renewable energy and code.org in addition to our already extensive array of classes and camps. Be on the lookout for camp selections next month.
Under our Enrichment umbrella, we are also sponsoring High School Academic Counseling. Did you know that the California state student-to-counselor ratio is 975-1. In Alameda, it is much lower a 365-1, but it still makes it a challenge to do individualized counseling for all students. AEF’s sponsorship of after-school counseling enables students and their parents/guardians to meet one-on-one or in small groups with their counselor to discuss college and career goals and developed an individualized plan to meet those. We also sponsor Incoming Freshman Information Nights for 8th graders and their parents and a College Finances presentation for graduating seniors to help bridge transitions into high school and college for students. These middle/high school programs are free.
Middle School Sports is in full throttle with girls basketball. The boys season begins next month. Please check our website for a full schedule and results.
As always, thank you for taking the time to learn about what we do. We sincerely believe the work we do is life-changing for many students, and our support of quality educational opportunities for students across the island helps make our community such a desirable place to live. We appreciate your support.
Sincerely,
Bill Sonneman, President
P.S. I invite you to learn more about the work we do by visiting our website at www.AlamedaEducation.org or calling our office at 510-337-7189. We would be happy to talk to you about the impact our programs make on student lives!