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Schools

School Fund-Raiser to Tap Empty Nesters

A new campaign aims to keep parents in the loop after their kids fly the coop.

With state funding for education falling short, the Piedmont Unified School District leans heavily on parents with children in the schools to pitch in. But once their kids graduate from high school, those contributions tends to drop off.

Andrea Swenson is aiming to reel them back in with a new fund-raising campaign she's working to launch later this year.

“We hope to reconnect parents who have been really involved in their kids’ educations,” Swenson said.

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The mom of two just became an empty nester herself. Her daughter Lucy, 19, is in her second year at Wellesley, while her youngest child Sam graduated from Piedmont High School in June and is starting at Macalester College this fall.

Swenson, 53, said not only did she feel her children’s absence, but also that of their friends’ parents and others connected to the high school.

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 “I realized suddenly there were all these people that I no longer saw,” she said.

has two decades of school fund-raising and organizing experience behind her. In May she was awarded the 2011 Arthur Hecht Volunteer of the Year Award by the Piedmont school board for her work with the Giving Campaign

Her new campaign will hold its first annual fund-raiser in November—a cocktail party for parents who no longer have kids living at home.

The goal of the party is to extend some goodwill to those who have given in the past, as well as encourage empty nesters to continue donating to education, particularly to the Piedmont Education Foundation Endowment Fund, said Swenson.

“[Donations] take the pressure off day-to-day funding,” she said.

The cost to educate one Piedmont student is around $11,000 per year, according to the Giving Campaign website. California's contribution has been slipping, leaving the Piedmont community to make up about $5,000.

“It’s clear the state is not giving us enough money to educate our children,” said Swenson.

Piedmont is fortunate to have financially well-off citizens who provide the additional funding, said Swenson. The Giving Campaign encourages Piedmont families to donate $1,500 or more to bridge the funding gap. The last year alone.

“We’re very lucky to live in a community that values education so highly,” she said.

The cocktail party will be held on Nov. 11. Admission is $50 per person, or free if attendees donate $500 to the Ed Foundation. The venue has yet to be confirmed.

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