Rock The Auction For Walgrove Elementary!

I was recently in a conversation where a fancy mother was talking about how they lived in an area that would have her children go to a local Venice school, but the school's programs weren't enough for her/them, so they have them in a private school in Santa Monica. They could walk to the Venice school, but instead endure a morning and evening traffic commute, and put all their resources into a school that doesn't need it. Public schools NEED it. Venice schools NEED it. If all the parents with means ignore that, what is going to happen to the public schools - the very foundation of our nation and world's future? It's extra sad ... and then you get an Education Secretary in Betsy DeVos that is actually dumber than a box of rocks, and you realize it's up to all of us. And I'm not even a parent. We HAVE TO CARE.

Well, SOME Venice parents ARE doing something about it. The great community of parents and friends of Walgrove Elementary fund pretty much everything extra themselves, through their fundraising efforts. Their big one, the Walgrove "We Rock The Auction" annual silent auction fundraiser is on NOW through this Friday, with a zillion things that you can bid on to help out our local kids. They can have the same cool programs that the fancy schools have, right here in our own neighborhood, the kids of our own neighbors. That's how communities - and then countries - thrive again.

The items range all over the place, from gift cards to awesome local merchants like Burro, to classes of all sorts of kinds, to restaurant deals, theater passes, cool art, clothes, cupcakes, and just about anything you can think of. You can get more for your money AND assist Walgrove in making sure our Venice kids have the very best opportunities for fun and learning that we can give them. Education is obviously super needed in this country, and it's well beyond time to improve on it all. Because it's getting embarrassing.

But not at Walgrove! These kids - all through efforts like this auction ON JUST UNTIL THIS FRIDAY, MARCH 16!! - get to do cool stuff like "Studio Lab", an innovative program that does things like having kids do Basquiat forgery paintings. I want in on that myself! They fund the teachers' aides. The physical education program. The P.S. Arts program. The musical theater program - this year putting on Annie! The Walgrove Wildlands and edible garden - where they are creating a monarch butterfly rest stop! Campus beautification and teacher appreciation are also funded by the Friends of Walgrove, and really, it's endless. NONE of those things would be in place without the help of parents, friends, and members of the local community. How awful would that be? The schools always need something, and our government is not funding our public schools even close to enough, so it's up to them. And us. We who care about the future of this country, and our future leaders.

Please think about it ... and then go HERE and bid on something - anything - from this instant while you're still thinking about it, through this Friday. I thank you, Walgrove thanks you, and when you see how great these kids grow up to be, you'll thank yourself.

Rock the Auction for Walgrove!

*Photos courtesy of Walgrove