Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Teen Calling Team: Pioneer High School freshman Jay Marvin and Willow Glen High School freshman Liz Earl dialed for dollars at the Willow Glen Middle School and High School Foundation's first phone-a-thon fundraiser.
WG schools foundation raises $12,500 in first phone-a-thon
Group involves local community in goal of improving schools
By Kate Carter
Pat Georgoff is a good example of someone whose children don't attend Willow Glen schools. Her son is a student at Castillero Middle School in Almaden Valley, not at Willow Glen Middle School, which is three blocks from their house.
"I would've liked him to go there, but it didn't have the programs he wanted," she says.
Nevertheless, Georgoff is an active member of the Willow Glen Middle and High School Foundation, and helped plan their kick-off phone-a-thon fundraising event that last week raised about $12,500 toward improvements of the schools' shared media center.
The phone-a-thon was modeled after similar fundraisers by elementary and high school foundations in Los Altos that raised more than $1 million for their schools this school year, Willow Glen Foundation members say.
But what made the Willow Glen effort different, they add, is that on Feb. 6 and 7, volunteers made calls not just to parents and alumni of Willow Glen schools, but also to about 4,500 residences in the 95125 ZIP code.
"The school is such a huge opportunity to bring people together to build community," said foundation board member Vern Ladd. "There are certain things that tie the community together, and the schools are one of them."
Between 60 and 70 parents, students and other community members gathered each night at RT Peak Travel on Lincoln Avenue and the Berliner and Cohen law offices downtown. Sustained by food and drink donated by Willow Street Pizza, Round Table Pizza, Noah's Bagels and the Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company on Lincoln Avenue, they spent their dinner and prime-time hours on the phone. Volunteers were also eligible for door prizes contributed by Willow Glen Liquors, Ladd said.
The foundation hoped to raise $35,000 for improvements to the schools' library with new computers and books. Foundation treasurer Peter Cocotas says before they made their first calls, though, the group was already about $12,500 closer to its goal, with donations so far totaling $7,500 from their December and January mailings and another $5,000 anonymous gift. The group, then, raised about $20,000 from its first major fundraiser.
"We broke our $20,000 mark, so that's good for our first try," foundation board member Pam English says.
English says they received about 400 donations that ranged between $5 and $250. Another 40 or 50 people, she says, were interested in the foundation and may contribute later. She says the foundation hopes to collect the money from the pledges by mid-March.
The foundation made their first $4,000 donation to the schools in November for two new Apple iMac computers and twice-weekly afternoons of extended library hours, during which community members can also use the library.
The Willow Glen Foundation was founded about six months ago with the goal of providing more materials and programs than they get from the state and the San Jose Unified School District, board members say. Even before the mailings and phone-a-thon, the group had collected about $12,500 since September, Cocotas says.
Foundation board member Jim Cashman says, "Parents have caught on to the fact that you have to supplement" public money. He says he is "a big supporter of public education," but recognizes that public schools can no longer provide the music classes and sports programs he took for granted when he was in public schools.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Dollar Figure: Willow Glen High School freshman Janelle Zetterquist accompanied her mother Jody in the phone-a-thon effort, and also recruited some friends to help out, too.
Cashman, like Georgoff, doesn't have any children at Willow Glen Middle or High schools. His children are first- and second-graders at Booksin Elementary. Georgoff says many of the volunteer callers have children at the elementary school that feeds into Willow Glen secondary schools.
"I want it to be a school to be proud of," Georgoff says. "I want the community to be proud of it. The public schools are only as good as the parents force them to be."
The foundation initially rejected her as a member because her son didn't attend the schools, asking "If you like the school so much, why isn't your child there," she says.
She was eventually accepted on the board and "changed the whole thought process for the foundation. This is about the community," she says.
Willow Glen High School Principal Pat Day agrees. "It's the school of the community," he says. "This facility is used constantly by many people of the community who don't have students here."
He cites the Little League, soccer and PAL football teams, as well as the dog walkers and exercisers who use the schools' fields and track.
Georgoff also points to the Willow Glen students who work in Willow Glen stores and volunteer in the community. Cashman mentions that improving the schools raises everyone's property values.
But Georgoff says the best reason to donate to the cause is because it helps everyone in the long run.
"The school is producing something for your future," she tells people who don't have a specific connection to Willow Glen schools. "It's also going to help you."
English says the phone-a-thon gives people an opportunity to ask questions about how their donation will be spent. She says she hopes it will give people more comfort, knowing their money is going to a good cause.
Her daughter, Kim, was also making calls last week. She says she is giving up her time to make calls because the foundation is trying to make her school a better place, and her work goes toward fulfilling her community service requirement.
"Our school's not doing so well right now," she says. "We need more materials."
Kim says the library could use a more updated collection of books and the science labs and physical education classes could stand better equipment.
She also says she hears from students at other schools that Willow Glen isn't a good school. She says they're wrong.
"I think it's a good school. It just has a bad reputation."
To make a contribution to the Willow Glen Middle and High School Foundation, call Cocotas at 408.267.8083.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
