Having fun while spending $83,000 Having fun while spending $83,000 (April 16, 2004)

by Jeb Bing

I f looking for glitz, glamour and a night of dancing and dining, your school's PTA might be just the ticket. That's what I enjoyed at the recent Walnut Grove Elementary School's "Evening at the Oscars" dinner-auction held at the Sunol Valley Country Club. Besides raising a record $83,000 to augment the school's budget for costly computer equipment, software upgrades and other technology needs, it was a chance to mingle in an exuberant crowd of 350 parents and teachers that included School Supt. John Casey and his wife Jody. Spearheaded by a committee of three - Kelly Sleek, Rene Brucker and Victoria Glenn - volunteers hit the streets last fall to seek the 450 donated items that were auctioned from merchants, restaurants, professionals, artists and individuals. Walnut Grove PTA President Sue Frost called the response "phenomenal," with enough raised to provide additional resources for students in the coming school year, including part-time reading specialists.

Throughout Pleasanton, these highbrow, flashy fundraisers, like Walnut Grove's, have become major social events. Clearly, they have been kicked up a notch from the old PTA bake sales of the past held in school gymnasiums. To be sure, Walnut Grove's was an extraordinary event, complete with a 108-page directory of items offered. On the pre-dinner silent auction schedule were airline tickets, French Champagne, teeth whitening, room painting, pizza for a year, Christmas gift wrapping, flute lessons and a week of child care, to name a few.

At the fast-paced live auction that followed, the spirited crowd bid up a Fujitsu laptop to $950. An afternoon of surfing with Principal Bill Radulovich went for $130. Two couples walked away with a four-day weekend at a cabin at Blue Lake Springs in Arnold for $600. Eye-popping, mouth-watering decorated cakes were walked around the crowded dining room, with each cake bringing in $150 to $200. Some of them were consumed on the spot. A day of sailing on the San Francisco Bay brought a top bid of $800. A party for 20 given by the Amador Valley High School cheerleaders raised another $300.

Even work assignments raised money for the school. Filling Radulovich's role as Principal for a Day brought $400, while two other bids, also for $400, earned the winners the right to fill Ann O'Neal's job as school secretary and Kathy Billings' job as school clerk. Parents competed to outbid others for special offers from their children's teachers, including lunch, bowling or sharing ice cream cones downtown. Thanks to his parents, one third grader was lucky enough to be serenaded by his teacher Jill Kirkwood and the PleasanTones quartet on his ninth birthday last week.

At the end, with $83,000 in hand, Radulovich asked if anyone wanted to donate cash to help the school create a quiet reading area for students away from the playground, with picnic tables and umbrellas. In less than five minutes, he had $1,000 for the project. All this in one evening of a Walnut Grove PTA fundraiser, one of a number of similar auctions held this spring that have shown the community's support of its local schools.

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