We have a lot of new opportunities and new experiences um we have some really fun handmade minona items that are just specific you would only find here uh very unique items we have a lot of sporting tickets sporting memorabilia um a lot of interactive Sports experiences as well which is new we have uh several curated Chef dinners or like local restaurants in the area that are doing Special dinner drink combinations

I remember last year concert tickets to a big concert and hotel stuff I won at an auction once bought tickets to the final four when it was here in town I just for the members of the public if you haven't had if you haven't thought about it it's pretty amazing what people donate to the foundation for the purpose of benefiting our students

Most of the money we raise through this event goes back to the school district through our teacher grant program um somewhat through our endowment program as well but I I'll focus on the teacher grants sure let's start there you know there there's been some very memorable teacher grants going back you know there there's of and these are things that teachers can't get out of out of their normal budget so this is just enhancements that they're bringing into their classroom which just benefits all of the students that get to go through that classroom

A couple years years ago we we had an individual and we funded an aquarium so that he could teach his class what underwater Lake minetonka habitat looked like what a cool unique experience to have um we've had vertical Gardens in a lot of the the classrooms throughout the district so that kids can learn how these plants grow Even in our harsh Minnesota winters uh indoors throughout throughout the school year

As a district we try to provide as much as we can but this really opens the door for some Innovation and sometimes this innovation is something that we say wow this is impactful it should happen across our district and and sometimes we have a Target we see we'd like to see some innovation in this area and we see it so both of those ways it's a great partnership sometimes you go above and beyond and support something substantial

Decodable readers are books uh that help our our students who are learning how to read get that solid foundation building phonics building the decodable sounds that that they'll just build on on their reading career with um so this opportunity actually came to us through some teacher grants for the past three years we saw some individual teachers ask for grant money for these decodable readers in their individual classrooms um after seeing that repeated process so many times uh we kind of thought to ourselves this is a great opportunity to maybe impact the whole District

We had a uh a meeting with District staff and said how could we do this like is there a plan that can go in here and what dollar amount would go on that um we got an answer back and and we had what was actually a very short conversation with the board because it aligned with all of our goals it it was something that everyone wanted to get behind and so last year we were able to Grant $100,000 Grant to buy most of these decodable readers um which uh since that time the implementation we we've seen was almost immediate uh they got delivered they got separated they were in all six elementary schools um and all English and Spanish students in kindergarten through second grade are already using them we're getting great feedback from the teachers

Excellence an opportunity you know you your our foundation your foundation our community was able to provide an exceptional resource for all students excellence and access an opportunity

There's 19 trustees on the board okay um we we ask those trustees to do a term of three years uh and there's a three term limit so nine years is the most you can do um of that 19 uh we have about seven different committees within that um that help run Finance marketing uh our teacher grant program our endowment program um and then our big events uh and Dream Makers our biggest event has its own committee

Who who are these 19 people are they parent community members business owners they they are all attached to the district somehow most of them are parents um that that have kids in the district or have had kids in the district um most of them are also community members um who who want to be involved who want to give back to the community um so every year you know we have people that are rolling off the board and we look to fill that um and you know everyone is welcome uh a lot of times we we're looking for candidates uh that want to be involved uh and for as long as they can or want to be um anywhere from 3 to 9 years

You probably hit it eight hours a month is probably a pretty good estimate um sometimes it can be more than that sometimes it can be less than that uh depending which committees you're you're on as well there's different times of year that you're either more involved or less involved um working up to our big fundraiser as an example um it's pretty much an all committee uh all hands on deck uh so everyone is involved a little bit more now uh than than they would be um but there there's one meeting a month um and uh that's a two-hour meeting and then you probably have a couple hours uh during the nights uh or during the day if if you're available for that throughout the rest of the month uh to kind of complete some tasks or or reach out to the community for support

I think uh it's just important to say thank you to everyone that donates to us for the partnership that we have with the district and and even the Alumni Association we work closely with them as well um we just couldn't be more fortunate to have people that are passionate about the district and about students and about teachers and we get so much support from everyone in the community and throughout the district we're just really thankful