By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Tickets are on sale now for the Hays USD 489 Foundation for Education Excellence dinner and auction.
The event will be Saturday, Oct. 23, at the Unrein Building. Cost is $65 per person or $500 for a table of eight. Tickets can be purchased online. You may also call the USD 489 district office at (785) 623-2400 for assistance purchasing tickets.
The foundation is also still accepting sponsors for the event. That can also be done online.
Doors open at 5 p.m. with dinner and entertainment starting at 6:30 p.m. Entertainment will be provided by the Hays High School Chamber Singers. Dinner will be provided by Smokin' Co.
The event will include a raffle, and silent and live auctions.
Raffles tickets are also on sale now. There will be a $1,000 cash raffle, $500 cash raffle and a $500 Chamber cheques raffle. Raffle tickets are $10 apiece or three for $20. Tickets can only be purchased the night of the auction.
This is the third year for the foundation auction. The event had to be canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. However, the foundation received federal CARES Act funds to cover the lost revenue.
The foundation's goal is to raise $50,000 this year.
Curtis Brown, foundation president, said the foundation has been in existence since 1988. However, the auction was launched in 2018 with the mission to pay for safety and security upgrades at the district schools.
"For kids to learn, they need to feel safe," Brown said.
Those upgrades had been part of a failed bond attempt in 2017.
Secure entrances have been completed at Hays High School, Hays Middle School and Roosevelt and Lincoln elementary schools. The foundation has contributed $134,000 to those projects.
Secure entrance projects are underway at Wilson and O'Loughlin elementary schools.
In addition to the security upgrades, the foundation makes grants to USD 489 teachers and administrators for smaller projects.
Projects the foundation has funded in the last year include lunches for Learning Center students, renovations at Westside, partial funding for Roosevelt playground improvements, special education assessment tools, reading books for Wilson first-graders and partial funding for O'Loughlin physical education equipment.
There will be a special auction number during the event to benefit this grant program.
The Maroon and Gold sponsors for the event are Werth Wealth Management and Michael Schaffer with Ameriprise Financial.
You can also follow the foundation on Facebook.