AEF raises $11,000 for educational projects

ARLINGTON — Ciscoe Morris shared some age-old tricks for getting rid of slugs (beer), deer (coyote pee), and moles, making the crowd of 400 people laugh a lot May 14 when he was the guest speaker at the Arlington Education Foundation’s fundraiser at the Arlington Hardware Store.

The event raised about $11,000 said organizer Cindy Huleatt, president of the AEF.

The newly expanded hardware store was packed full of adults and kids, overflowing onto North Olympic Avenue outside. The store’s manager, Taylor Jones rolled open the new sliding front door at 6 p.m. sharp on the sunny evening, making good use of the door that was designed for occasions like that.

Outside, a group of elementary school singers entertained the crowd with some songs. They are some of many beneficiaries of the fundraiser, since one of the three projects that the AEF has selected to fund this year is a library of choral music for use by the elementary schools in the district.

Inside, a representative from Advanced Classroom Technologies, Alex Stuart demonstrated an electronic white board which will be installed in homeroom classrooms at Post Middle School. The large screen functions by touch, with hundreds of different exercises available to keep students busy while the teacher is helping a fellow student, and the youngsters were eager to try it out.

“This is a new way for students to interact,” Stuart said.

“It really helps aid math and science teaching, which is the big push these days,” he said, adding that the interactive board provides opportunities for shy kids who don’t like to get up in front of a crowd.

“It provides for a variety of different learning styles,” Stuart noted.

Michael Cook, a beekeeper and the owner of Cedar Glen Bees, and his wife Donna Cook talked about beekeeping, offering samples of lupine honey, blackberry honey and other products and Master Gardeners Bea Randall and Sandra Bush answered questions of gardeners before Ciscoe Morris started talking at 7 p.m.

The Arlington High School video production students filmed the event; they too will benefit from a grant from the AEF.

After Ciscoe advocated alfalfa pellets, Terrie Scarscella stood up to offer two 50-pound bags for the raffle give away, which concluded the festive evening.

“We were hoping for $12,000 to $15,000, but are very happy with the results,” Huleatt told the Arlington Times last week.

“We have raised about $26,000 toward our goal of $72,000,” she said.

“A major part of our mission with this event was to make people aware of the AEF, who we are and what we are about,” Huleatt said.

Another AEF fundraiser is in the works.

“We will be having a wine tasting event,” said AEF member Kathy Burkholder.

Huleatt said they just confirmed the date of Sept. 24 for that next event.

“Not only did they host the event, Mike and Taylor [owner and manager of the Arlington Hardware Store] sponsored Ciscoe too, Huleatt said.

“We couldn’t have done it without Mike.”

Funds also came in as a result of an exclusive party for about 50 people at the Bistro San Martin which was subsidized by Jeff and Judy Cartwright of Advanced Orthopaedic Institute. Huleatt said the Cartwrights also paid for the food and beverages at the hardware store.

“The neat thing about the Ciscoe evening is that it brought the community together. It had Arlington written all over it,” Huleatt said.

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