With $50 and a little good fortune, one lucky Gilroyan could win
a new set of wheels.
With $50 and a little good fortune, one lucky Gilroyan could win a new set of wheels.
Faced with the possibility of not having the funds to send about 350 sixth graders on their annual excursion to science camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Ascencion Solorsano Middle School Parent Club has launched a scheme to come up with $60,000 in tuition.
The multi-pronged approach consists of the usual candy and coupon book sales but some “outside the box” thinking – specifically, a raffle for a certified pre-owned vehicle – could contribute about $20,000 to the cause, said Parent Club President Jim Shuster. Shuster hopes at least 550 supporters will gamble $50 for a good cause and the possibility of winning the car at live drawing April 25 in front of Dutchman’s Pizza *– Shuster’s business.
Shuster, who has chaperoned the trip for several years and is signed up again even though his daughter is a seventh grader, said there were “a lot of sixth grade parents with long faces” when they heard the news that the trip might get the ax.
In previous years, parents of Solorsano sixth graders who could afford the $250 tuition per child ponied up the cash themselves and the school made strides to accommodate the rest but current board policy mandates that in order to miss school for an academic field trip, every student must be included in the trip and cannot be excluded for lack of funds.
“We worked hard to reach out to every family,” said Solorsano Principal Sal Tomasello. “We never turned a student down.”
Tomasello said his students talk about their sixth grade camp experience years after the trip and that the program is invaluable. But with the largest sixth grade class in its history and a more strictly enforced field trip policy to abide by, parents and staff had to brainstorm new ideas for producing the funds.
“We’re trying everything,” Tomasello said. “The is the largest number of sixth graders we’ve ever had and we may be pitching a few extra tents, but we’re going to make it happen.”
Though the parent club considered scaling back the field trip to save money, Shuster said they decided to go for it in the end and see if enough members of the community could be enticed by the prospect of the car. Since the car will be purchased at auction, Shuster was not sure of its exact make or model but estimated that it would be worth about $9,000 – and besides, “it’s for a great cause,” he added.
Where to buy tickets
-www.asmsparentclub.com
-Solorsano Middle School, 7121 Grenache Way
-Parent Club president Jim Shuster, 857-0475
-Dutchman’s Pizza, 6940 Chestnut St.
