Schools Foundation in tune with students and teachers

YAKIMA, Wash. -- It’s not enough for members of the marimba band at Yakima’s Roosevelt Elementary School to be able to perform scales or hold their mallets correctly, wrapping their hands around the handles instead of placing their fingers on top.

They must also have manners.

"Our marimba band is an outreach group," music specialist Dorothy Vick tells the students trying out Wednesday. "We represent our school. Everything that you do reflects what I do."

That means no playing while she’s talking. It also means the students’ teachers from last year and this year will confirm Vick’s list before she posts it.

Her program is popular. And competitive.

This week, about 75 fourth- and fifth-graders were trying out for 11 open spots, since five of the band’s 16 spots were already filled by returning members.

The select 16 will get to play xylo-phones and marimbas — including two new Aussie marimbas made by Bothell, Wash.-based Bourne Marimbas — for their school as well as other schools, community clubs and events.

Two more new marimbas are on order, expected to arrive in February. And Vick can hardly wait.

She received $3,497.50 last year to buy the new instruments — as well as 16 pairs of mallets —  from the Yakima Schools Foundation, which pays for programming and educational materials for Yakima schools.

"We have a parent organization, but they just don’t have the funds, not these kind of funds," says Vick, who applied for the money last year after hearing another school’s marimba band perform at a music conference.

"The sound was just totally different," she says. "I thought, if we were going to be called a marimba band, I wanted to make it as authentic as possible."

Sunday, community members have a chance to help other teachers help their students. The Yakima Schools Foundation, now in its 20th year, is hosting its biggest annual fundraiser.

Tickets to the 15th annual Tour de Harvest are $75 per person or $600 for a table for eight. This year’s theme is "Attitude of Gratitude," and the goal is to pull in $82,000.

"We always make it, either make or exceed it," says executive director Patty Dion, who’s worked for the organization since 1999.

Back then, she says, the foundation had about $80,000 in the bank and no endowments. Now it has seven, and about $500,000 in assets.

In all, the nonprofit organization has given nearly $925,000 since its inception.

"We’ve grown dramatically," Dion says. Still, "I can hardly believe that it’s been 20 years."

The foundation was started in 1991 by a group of education supporters who wanted to expand and enhance learning opportunities for local students. Today, says Hamilton Licht, a past president and early organizer, "the foundation is a really valuable asset to the Yakima School District."

"The foundation supports teachers who are making an effort to support their students in a special way," he says. "Sometimes, that’s meeting personal needs. Sometimes, that’s helping them obtain educational opportunities that wouldn’t be available to them otherwise."

With almost $120 million cut from the state’s K-12 public education spending this year, more and more teachers could be relying on the foundation.

And it wouldn’t be the first time.

After a double levy failure in 1998, the foundation stepped up to fill in gaps, giving $104,565 during the 1997-98 school year and another $58,352 during the 1998-99 school year.

Its charitable work is made possible through donations from individuals and businesses throughout the community, including YSD employees who donate through payroll deductions, about $21,000 for the 2009-10 school year.

Dion also spends much of her time applying for grants from civic and other community organizations.

"We really do give a lot back to the kids, and that’s what it’s all about," she says.

The foundation foots the bill for everything from field trips to art programs, like the marimba band at Roosevelt. It’s funded science fairs and author’s visits, bike giveaways and reading intervention materials, tickets to performances at the Capitol Theatre and band uniforms.

"School budgets just don’t fund all that," Dion says.

Requests come in Sept. 1 through May 1 and are reviewed once a month by a board of directors, made up of 20 community members.

"If you look on the list of things they’ve funded, some are fairly large amounts of money and some are fairly modest," says Paul Larson, another past president and early organizer.

Among the biggest grants the group has given so far: $52,358 for a computer lab at Davis High School in 1997, $36,800 for middle school sports uniforms in 2004, $30,000 for a computer lab at Eisenhower High School in 1995, $20,193 for a new playground at McClure Elementary School in 2008, $20,000 for teaching training in 2001, and $17,950 for middle school band uniforms in 2008.

The largest single donation to the foundation, according to Dion: $150,000 from an anonymous donor for the K-5 Fine Arts Endowment.

The other endowments are earmarked for the debate clubs at Ike and Davis, performing arts, literacy, high school sports, vocational education and performing arts, particularly for students who can’t afford the full cost of participation. There’s also a general endowment fund.

Areas of emphasis are: academic excellence, cultural arts, youth at risk, communication and technology, classroom enhancement, and promoting partnerships between students, schools, parents and the community.

The downturn in the economy has slowed donations the last couple of years. But, Dion says, supporters are "still showing up" for benefits like Sunday’s Tour de Harvest or the Celebrate Our Youth Breakfast in the spring.

In its first year, in 1995, Tour de Harvest grossed about $4,000. Last year, the event raised about $41,000. And in 2008, it raised about $42,500.

That compares with about $61,000 in 2007, before the recession.

"People are watching their pennies, there’s no doubt about that," Dion says. "But people still believe in education. People still care about education."

The foundation watches its pennies, too. Day to day, Dion says, it operates on "a very limited budget."

Rent for the office in downtown Yakima’s Larson Building is just under $500 a month. And a group of 50 to 75 volunteers helps with everything from mailings to event set-up.

"The most fun is getting thank-you notes from the kids," Dion says, flipping through a folder full of letters and cards, many of them handmade, some of them containing photographs of field trips funded by the foundation. "These are treasures."

Some of them will be used as centerpieces at Sunday’s event, where everything from trips to Cabo San Lucas and Las Vegas to symphony tickets, golf packages and wine will be auctioned off.

Writing a thank-you note is also on Vick’s to-do list. But she wants to wait until members of the new marimba band are chosen so she can include a photo of the 2010-11 team.

She’ll post the list Friday morning.

"My job is to open up some doors" for students, she says. "If they can’t go to it, we’ve got to bring it to them as best as we possibly can."

And that’s where the foundation makes a difference.

"I don’t think they realize how much they help," Vick says. "What they do is phenomenal."

•  For more information about the Yakima Schools Foundation, call Patty Dion at 509-457-0898, or visit www.yakimaschoolfoundation.org.

• Adriana Janovich can be reached at 509-577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.

If you go ...

• WHAT: Tour de Harvest

• WHEN: 1 to 8 p.m. Sunday

• WHERE: Cascade Gardens, 5704 W. Washington Ave.

• COST: $75 per person, or $600 for a table for eight. RSVP is preferred, but tickets will be available at the door.

• INFO: 509-457-0898 or www.yakimaschoolsfoundation.org.