Student groups individualize efforts to Fundraise

Every year, students are asked for a financial donation for each of their own extracurricular activities, such as sports,
arts, music, speech and debate, and science research and engineering. These donations are used mainly for entry fees, substitute teachers, transportation, equipment, officials, California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) league dues and playoffs.

To help offset the cost of extracurricular programs and lower Participation Donation fees, which are voluntary, principal Mitzi Cress will use a $100,000 discretionary funding award from the district. The money will be applied to the stipends teachers receive for their work in extracurricular activities.

Now that the Participation Donation amounts have been lowered, it decreases the pressure on extracurricular programs to raise money. The donations play a large role in these programs because they pay for all of their nonfunded necessities.

In Oct. 2012, the state passed legislation which outlawed mandatory participation fees. This was in response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of two California students. Since the passage of the bill, extracurricular programs have experienced funding crunches, putting pressure on the programs to fundraise.

“If say, one of the sports team decides that they want to go on a trip and add another tournament, then they are going to have to go to parents and see if parents want to do it and it is going to have to be funded by their parents, through the Participation Donation or they may have to raise money,” Principal Mitzi Cress said.

Past fundraisers in support of extracurricular programs include gift wrapping at the Christmas Holiday Boutique, compassionate bracelet sales, catalog sales and volunteer training with the South Bay Volunteer Center, where students brought their volunteer training to the campus.

Trips to conferences and competitions, which could cost as much as a few hundred dollars, encourage sports teams and clubs to sponsor fundraisers.

“An example of this is our girls’ tennis team; they really wanted to go to the Stanford tennis tournament at the beginning of the year, so they decided to sell banners,” Cress said. “They went this direction because they knew that it nwas outside of their transportation from last year’s, so they did a fundraiser [with] banners and they were able to pay for [their transportation fee].”

Fundraisers in the past have played an important role in helping Peninsula keep the extracurricular programs going
and they have also helped students learn what it is like to adopt a leadership role by efficiently raising money for a particular organization or group.

“[Fundraisers] are an interesting experience for [the students] to oversee something, organize it and ultimately mobilize a group of people to help you with something,” Service Learning Leadership adviser Heather Myrick said.

The Participation Donation provides the majority of the funds needed in extracurricular activities. Although not mandatory, they are necessary for extracurricular activities to continue.

“The team could not have a snack shack and frequent team dinners without the parents,” water polo captain and
senior Brandon Nelsen said.