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4 SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 DRIVE FOR SCHOOLS I t's time for the annual Drive for Schools, the largest school fundraiser in Santa Cruz County. Sponsored by the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Toyota of Santa Cruz, and Subaru of Santa Cruz, the fundraiser has raised $6.1 million since it began in 2005. All Santa Cruz County elementary, middle and high schools are wel- come to participate. Many people buy tickets ($5 each or 6 for $25) hoping to win the grand prize: choice of $25,000 cash, a new Subaru Crosstek or a new Toyota Prius LE. Don't worry if you're not the big winner, though. There are 100 additional prizes, including restaurant and hotel gift certificates (donated by local busi- nesses) and 10 $1,000 cash prizes donated by the Boardwalk. Schools that sell tickets get to keep every dollar of their sales, and they decide what to purchase with their earnings. School volunteers receive everything they need for the fundraiser including tickets, post- ers, and support. "Drive for Schools is a great and successful program because it's easy for schools to participate and earn a lot of much needed money in a short amount of time," says Boardwalk Community Relations Director Kris Reyes. The Santa Cruz Beach Board- walk has been supporting the local community for over 100 years, and has been co-sponsoring DFS since 2006, the second year of the program. "It's the best program we've ever been a part of," says Kris. "It's easy and raises tons of money. It makes all of us at the Boardwalk very proud to partici- pate and know we are helping lo- cal schools." Karley Pope, the Boardwalk's Director of Sales and Promotions, has been working with DFS for about 12 years. "I get the pleasure of kicking off DFS in September with all the school representa- tives, and physically pulling all 100+ winner tickets on the draw- ing day," says Karley. "I've really seen it evolve over the years. We now have bigger and better prizes, we put more emphasis on the top fundraising schools by offering them trophies, and we had to get a bigger barrel to hold the growing ticket entries!" Want to support Santa Cruz schools and students by buying DFS tickets, and have the oppor- tunity to win a great prize? Check with families of students you know; chances are, they have tick- ets to sell! If you don't know any local students, you can still sup- port your neighborhood school by buying tickets from a school volun- teer. A list of parent volunteers is available on the Boardwalk's Drive for Schools website at beachboard- walk.com/Drive-For-Schools. Tricia Aminifard, a parent volun- teer, is the Drive for Schools coor- dinator at Mar Vista Elementary. To sell tickets, Mar Vista "brings the tickets to the public in the form of our families, social media, farm- ers' markets, and setting up tables in front of local shops," says Tricia. "Also, we allow for online sales through our Parents Club website, and send home packets of tickets to our families to sell or purchase themselves." Mar Vista uses the ticket pro- ceeds to "…benefit the school as a whole, bringing in programs such a peaceful playgrounds, math pro- grams, art for lower classes and also to bridge the gap between what the district provides and what the school needs," says Tricia. "We also allow the teachers to use a portion of their classroom sales to supply whatever they need in their class—from new books to new pencils." Everyone at Mar Vista is grate- ful for DFS. "It's by far the best and most lucrative fundraiser for any school because the overhead is completely compensated by Toyota/Subaru of Santa Cruz and the Boardwalk. They print the tickets, create the flyers, find the prizes, and conduct the drawing as well as market the entire event for the schools all on their dime," Tricia says. All the school does is sell the tickets. "Any other fun- draiser has overhead. But every single dime from DFS benefits the children directly." Boardwalk employee Karley Pope's children also attend Mar Vista Elementary. "It's been amaz- ing to personally see the large fundraising potential of this pro- gram and the huge impact it has on the school," says Karley. "It has allowed our Parents Club to cut down on the number of fundraisers they need to do, which in turn has eased the load on all the school parents." The Valencia Elementary DFS coordinator is parent Darcy Pruitt, who is in her sixth year in this role. "We started doing this when my daughter started kindergarten, and she's now in fifth grade," says Darcy. "The first year was me, my friend Jessica Amezaga, and my mom, who's a retired accountant. We learned a lot and now we have DRIVING SALES By Tara Fatemi Walker CONTINUES ON 5 2018 Drive for Schools Kick-off at Toyota of Santa Cruz. Last minute ticket sales for Special Education.