What do a ride in the bookmobile, a spa date for your car, a 10-week sourdough subscription, four yards of mulch and a week at pirate camp have in common?

Besides being a Vashonite’s dream, all these items have been generously donated to the online auction for the Vashon Schools Foundation (VSF), which opens this week — and you can bid on them now!

The online auction is part of VSF’s major new fundraising event. This month, we are hosting our first ever gala and auction. These events will supercharge the support that our community offers our kids and our schools.

State funding doesn’t cover all our kids’ needs, and that’s why your participation is critical. Your gala attendance or online auction bid will fund vital staff to serve targeted academic and family support, art, social and emotional support services, science programs and more. These events are a chance to come together and invest in a strong future for our Vashon students.

(Plus, have I mentioned that there are three massage packages, a sound bath and a voyage for six on a hot tub boat on Lake Union, all open for bidding?)

The gala and auction aren’t the only new initiatives from VSF this year. The foundation has a long history of funding curriculum, supplies, teachers and, especially, fundraising to reduce the impact of budget cuts. Our community’s generosity recently raised nearly $90,000 to fund school nurse and counselor positions in 2024. Beyond emergency support, in recent years VSF has focused on crucial art and science support. VSF funds Vashon Center for the Arts’ Artists in Schools program, and Vashon Nature Center’s Scientists in Schools program, which brings kids into our forests and shorelines to apply real science concepts outside the classroom. The foundation is also funding social-emotional curriculum and, this year, counseling for our island’s most vulnerable youth.

This year, with the support of this incredible community, we are aiming even higher. Given the current school funding climate, we at the VSF feel like the time is right to intentional, proactive funding of school district essentials, including staff.

(Speaking of essentials, are you still reading this or are you scrolling the online auction by now? There is a generous CPA gift certificate, a decluttering package and dog training — get your essentials while supporting our schools!)

This school year, Vashon Schools Foundation is funding a second Family Engagement Coordinator, Richard Rivas-Gutierrez, who was hired in September and is now working in the district’s new Family Engagement Center, to offer comprehensive support to all families in our district who need it. Their work is already having an effect — for example, they recently held a workshop for families to come and learn how to use the school’s parent communication app to schedule parent-teacher conferences.

But the biggest news we have is that VSF will be funding direct academic support for students. For the current school year, this will include paraeducator math support at McMurray; a spring math class at VHS to support students in meeting grade-level standards; paraeducator reading support at Chautauqua and teacher development time at McMurray to prepare for math and reading intervention. This is the result of months of work by our district leadership to work with principals and teachers to identify areas of greater need. The spending was approved by the foundation last month and the district is already moving forward on staffing these positions.

Together, we’re making a difference — and we can’t wait to do even more. The current funding landscape for our schools presents a challenge and an opportunity to our community. How can we, as the Vashon Schools Foundation, harness our community’s care, intentions and resources for our island’s kids and schools? How can we ensure that all students can access what they need to thrive, this year and in the future?

Our answer is the gala and auction, and we need your participation to increase our impact in Vashon’s schools. Your support helps fund vital staff to serve targeted academic and family support, art, social and emotional support services, science programs, and more. So whether it is dinner for 10 by a renowned chef; a holiday cookie-baking class by Vashon Baking Company; or summer camps, reading tutors, and perhaps a vasectomy on the side — we’ve got you covered, and we know that you have our kids covered.

To access our incredible online auction, please find us at vashongala2025.ggo.bid.

Or join us at the Gala Nov. 15, where tickets are almost sold out! Visit tinyurl.com/VSFGala2025 to get yours ticket soon!

Kennedy Leavens is the co-president of the Vashon school foundation and parent of three.