November 15, 2000
Funds in the cards for ACE Night
Annual fund-raiser provides grants for school programs
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Combining gourmet food, upscale shopping and sales galore, the fifth annual ACE Night at Hudson's was, once again, a resounding success.
A chance to support the ACE Fund, which provides grants to teachers in the Traverse City Area Public Schools for supplemental educational programs, brought out hundreds of area residents, who mingled, shopped, ate and thoroughly enjoyed their night on the town. With attendees ranging from parents to community members to teachers and administrators, the night celebrated what works about public schools: participation.
"It's important for parents to participate in this event," said first-time attendee Carol Vernam, whose daughter is a fourth grader at Bertha Vos Elementary School. "This night is a good opportunity to see how much money parents can raise. I also got to meet teachers I haven't met before."
After all ticket sales are tallied later this week, ACE Night organizers are confident they will come close to their goal of $30,000, a twenty percent increase over last year's effort. This year, the tally received a large boost from more than $18,000 in sponsorships, said Gail Dall'Olmo, chairperson of the ACE Fund.
"The sponsorships were our best effort ever," Dall'Olmo said.
The stars of the evening were teachers who received grants from last year's fund-raiser. A broad range of subjects and schools were represented by last year's grants, including a video project at Old Mission Elementary School and a multi-grade supplemental reading program at Norris Elementary School.
Four teachers at Norris ordered the same guided reading program, which provides students with continuity of reading instruction from kindergarten through third-grade.
"The materials provided through the grant were able to produce better readers," said Peggy Rod, a first-grade teacher at Norris Elementary School. "The guided reading books allows us to teach students at different levels. This is the way the district wants us to go but they don't have the resources yet."
A partner with the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, the ACE Fund was created in 1992 by Kent Underwood. After his children came home from school with yet another fundraising request, Underwood decided teachers needed a reliable source of funding for special programs not covered by the district's operating budgets.
ACE Night was born three years later to provide an infusion of cash for the fund. Since then, the glittery night has become a staple of the area's fund-raisers, drawing nearly 500 attendees this year.
"Our TCAPS budget does a very good job of supplying things for our kids, these grants are things that are a little extra," Dall'Olmo said. "It gives the teachers an opportunity to expand their materials a little bit, gives them a chance to expose students to different ideas, like building catapults to teach science."
The money raised during the evening will be divided between the ACE endowment fund and grants that are given directly to the schools and teachers. With this division, ACE Fund managers plan that one day the endowment fund will be large enough to finance these special programs without the annual fund-raiser. That goal may be sometime in the future, though.
In the meantime, ACE Night organizers continue to outdo themselves each year, helped by dozens of parent-volunteers who keep the evening's overhead down.
"It was a wonderful night, it went really well, too, without a hitch," said Dall'Olmo.