Gala blows away fund-raising goals

Organizers of the first ever Green & Gold Gala fund-raiser set a realistic goal of raising $5,000 to benefit Sisters Elementary School.

Then they blew that goal sky high with a celebratory evening at FivePine Conference Center that took in $17,000 before expenses.

The concept for last Saturday's semi-formal dinner/auction was first laid on the table by former elementary school parent Judy Vial. A group of elementary school parents ran with Vial's inspiration. Their purpose: to provide a means of raising funds for the school other than by students going door-to-door selling stuff that the buyer might not really want.

About 120 people attended the event.

"We feel that we had a very, very good turnout," said gala chairman Melanie Petterson.

The evening started with a cocktail hour and silent auction followed by dinner. A slide show produced by parent Angela Sitz starred elementary school students and cataloged the school's special events throughout the year. The highlight of the gala was the auction, after which DJ Dave Wilkins of Star Productions kept everyone dancing until after 10:30 p.m.

"We had a lot of good time," said Petterson.

The hope of the organizers was to bring parents together who otherwise would never see one another. They also wanted to draw community members to support the school who are not directly connected to the elementary school.

The concept held out a lot of benefits for parents.

"It takes away their financial burden in taking their children out to sell what is commonly called 'junk sales,'" said Petterson. "Parents would much rather give to this (dinner/auction) type of thing, where they are actually receiving some type of tangible item (through auction purchases) for their donation."

Professional auctioneer Monte Williams traveled from Eugene to donate his services for the fund-raiser.

Some live auction items brought in healthy sums.

"The orthodontic treatment was like in the $3,800 range," said Petterson. "The big sellers weren't in the high-dollar range, but a lot of the art work and the students' projects went for hundreds of dollars."

Although all expenses have not yet been calculated, the $17,000 in gross proceeds so far counted greatly exceeds organizers' expectations, Petterson told The Nugget.

Child care was offered at Sisters Elementary School, and 35 children attended. SPTC board member and gala committee participant Cheryl Stewart, with the help of both middle and high school students, oversaw the evening.

"There were games. There were movies. T & T Pizzeria donated the pizzas for the evening," said Petterson. "She (Stewart) had 35 children for over five hours in one area."

An anonymous donor provided tickets for 10 elementary school teachers and staff to attend the event.

"It was very nice because teachers who might not have been able to come were able to attend and participate. It was interesting because some of the teachers were the ones who bought their own classroom's art project (at the live auction)," said Petterson.

The hope is that each year the gala will grow to provide more and more funds for projects that otherwise would not be funded at Sisters Elementary School.

"Eventually we anticipate over the next years to escalate this event to bring in $20,000 plus. That's our goal," said Petterson.