May 22nd was LILA's second annual tri-campus gala. It was an enormous success and a true testament to the wonderful things that can happen when we join forces and work together. The volunteers from the three northern campuses brought so much of themselves to the table; their energy was contagious and the room was filled with goodwill and happiness. Everyone had a common goal: to raise money for their school and celebrate the wonderful things we can accomplish for our kids while having fun.
Numbers have been crunched and John Fleck, LILA President, has prepared a graphic view of how we did with the gala as a whole as well as how each separate income stream did. The costs of the gala were shared by all three campuses and the net income generated was split based on participation. So, for example, if a West Valley parent brought in an item and then a Los Feliz parent bought it in the auction, the proceeds were split 50-50. Potentially, an Orange County parent could have purchased items on the online silent auction and raised funds for his/her campus without ever coming to the event.
Proceeds of this year's gala went to each campus' development fund. The one exception to this was the evening paddle session which was earmarked for interactive white boards (commonly referred to as "smart boards" although we don’t purchase the SMART Board brand). For those of you who are not exactly sure what these boards can do... take a look at the two minute video that gives a glimpse of a few activities that LILA students participated in with the boards that were bought this year as part of the pilot program.
In addition to the delicious meal, the paddle session was in fact one of the highlights of the evening. What was most amazing was how almost everyone in the room held up their paddles at the end of the evening to give towards the purchase of “smart boards”. Between the impressive show of support the night of and direct contributions made before and after the event, we were able to raise $41,445 so far for the project, which at about $2,500 to equip each classroom with everything needed to get the board working, we are talking about 16 boards for the three campuses. This is such a huge success that it is clear that we will be able to equip all classrooms on these sites in far less than the three years we initially anticipated!
The buzz has been so great that some parents are working to keep the ball rolling on this paddle session by encouraging their friends and fellow LILA supporters who were not able to come or participate the night of the event to go online and donate.
If you are interested in helping, the link below is the quickest way to make a donation for interactive white boards. When you go to the link, in the box which says “Annual Drive”, pull it down and click on “Gala”, select your preferred Campus option, and in the notes section, write “smart boards”. Let’s try and get 100% participation and see if we can raise enough money so that in September all classrooms will have “smart boards”.
https://payments.auctionpay.com/ver3/?id=w021242
Thank you all for your generous support... Thank you to our volunteers who gave so much of themselves and put on such a wonderful event. Thank you to those who attended and contributed to making this a wonderful event. This was truly a delightful evening and it was both a pleasure and a privilege to share this amazing night with you.
The slideshow below is a compilation of the pictures that our own Doug Piburn took at the 2010 Gala, Le Jazz Hot.
Tristan’s behalf.