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drive for schools 091118

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6 SEPTEMBER 11, 2018 DRIVE FOR SCHOOLS D rive for Schools is kicking off its 14th year of fundrais- ing for Santa Cruz County Schools. The program is the byproduct of the three entities — Toyota of San- ta Cruz, Subaru of Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk —but it wouldn't be as successful without the help of many other lo- cal businesses that believe in the mission. The drive has a grand prize of a new car or $25,000 in cash, but there are more than a hun- dred other prizes from business- es throughout the county. That doesn't include the free labor and supplies donated either. The busi- nesses that support the effort are also a key reason why schools can keep 100 percent of the money raised from raffle ticket sales. "They're a huge piece of the puzzle," said Kris Reyes, director of external affairs for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. "Their enthusi- asm and participation are amaz- ing." One of the key businesses is Mis- sion Printers on Soquel Avenue in Santa Cruz. Each year, the busi- ness donates the printing of post- ers and hundreds of thousands of raffle tickets and hundreds of posters for the fundraiser. This year, the business is print- ing some 385,000 tickets. The printing and bindery process for that many tickets takes about two weeks and the result is big enough to fill a large wooden pallet, ac- cording to Paul Couchman, owner of Mission Printers. Couchman is proud to be a part of the effort because of his roots in Santa Cruz County. Both he and his wife graduated from So- quel High School. His grandchil- dren went to Twin Lakes Christian School and, this year, one of them started at Soquel High. "We're a product of the local schools," he said. On their own, the schools wouldn't be able to print tickets and posters and manage the fund- raisers without sacrificing valuable time and effort. But with the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Toyota of Santa Cruz and Subaru of Santa Cruz working along with the lo- cal business community, all the schools need to do is have stu- dents sell the tickets. "You get back what you put into it," Couchman said. "And as a local business, that's what we're doing. We're supporting the local people that support us." It's the same mindset that's driven Matt Twisselman to donate each year. Twisselman owns four food concessions at the Board- walk, but more importantly, his daughters have benefitted from the program. They went to Scotts Valley High School and Twisselman remembers the program well. "When my daughters were in high school still, I really tried to participate on that end of it," he said, saying that he helped sell tickets himself years ago. "A lot of schools have raised money for dif- ferent things." He jumped onto the Drive for Schools team about six years ago, when organizers asked him to do- nate a prize. While he didn't have much in the way of merchandise, he knew donating a bike each year would help. So it became an an- nual tradition for Twisselman to donate a cruiser bike to the long list of raffle prizes each year. "It's not that significant as far as what it costs me," he said. "But it just adds to the whole prize con- cept for this whole event." DONATIONS COME IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS BY CALVIN MEN Matt Twisselman, Twisselman Enterprises Photo contributed

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