Red & White all over

At last count, 720 Sonoma Valley citizens, and uncounted out-of-town guests, paid $100 or more to don the colors of the evening and take a seat on the Plaza lawn for dinner at the annual Red & White Ball.

Another 200 or so just came to dance.

The Sonoma tradition, originally created to raise funds for Plaza maintenance and repairs, is now a fundraiser for the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, which presented a hefty, super-sized check in the amount of $1,396,576 to the Sonoma Valley Unified School District, as a symbolic representation of the total amount of financial support the Education Foundation will have donated during the current school year.

“It just shows our commitment to the school district,” said Education Foundation executive director Laura Zimmerman. “We’re very confident in the number.”

Zimmerman said that, in addition to the money raised from ticket sales, the auction held during dinner also raised in excess of $100,000. “It was a great success,” she said, “we’re very happy with how it went.”

In addition to the auction, there was a raffle for a new Chevy Spark that was won, appropriately enough, by a teacher: retired Dunbar teacher Sandi Everett.

Ball-goers, a clear majority dressed in variations of the red and white theme, were served a buffet dinner prepared by Big Jim’s BBQ, with appetizers created and served by students in the Sonoma Valley High School’s Culinary Academy.

The Cork Pullers performed during dinner, and the fledgling Valley Vibes Youth Orchestra, from El Verano School, played as well.

While no plans have yet been announced regarding disposition of this year’s proceeds, last year’s event channeled money into the Exploratorium Science program in all local elementary schools, the VTS art for elementary students program, the School Garden Project now installed at all public and charter schools (with the gardens providing produce for school cafeterias), and the Teacher Support Network Volunteer Program at Sonoma Valley High School, which helps bring more than 50 volunteers to the high school each week to assist in academic and elective classes, as well as in the administration office and the College and Career Center.

Red & White Ball funds were also shared with the PTOs at each school and the Sonoma Valley High School Boosters Club.

Honored at the Ball were three district teachers, chosen as teachers of the year by the outgoing 2014 senior class at Sonoma Valley High School. The honored teachers were Dave Neubacher from El Verano Elementary School, Kathy Eschleman From Adele Harrison Middle School and Andy Gibson from Sonoma Valley High School.

When the serious fundraising was over, the Dave Martin House Party Band pulled out their 600-song repertoire and kept the dance floor full until the 10 p.m. witching hour.

It was, said one exuberant, 20-something dancer, “the best party ever.”

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