Saturday, March 5th marked the first annual Central Parents Night Out! The event, at Beckwith Pointe in New Rochelle, was a huge success with over 175 Central parents joined by Principal Carol Priore and Assistant Principal Joanne Hindley. The Mardi Gras themed party was very festive with colorful masks and beads, specialty cocktails, Cajun treats and a live New Orleans-style band.
The annual Silent Auction was moved from Scare Fair this year to Parents Night Out in an effort to expand the auction, increase focus and make this Central’s biggest fundraiser. Funds raised from the event will support the new Teacher Grant Program. This new program will provide grants to teachers and administrators - allowing them to apply for funds that will directly and positively impact the students in the classroom. The goal of the Grants Committee will be to support innovative and creative projects to enhance the curriculum. During this school year, many grants have already been awarded including those to launch a new Central News Meteorologist Program that will allow all grades to participate in scientific weather forecasting and reporting; new listening centers and audio materials for several classrooms and giant garden games.
There were many exciting auction items including tickets for the NY Giants and Knicks, a Japanese dinner for 8 and a Vineyard Vines basket filled with fun ties and such for men! Of course the Silent Auction also featured the always popular Central sign up parties including men’s and women's poker nights, girls night out and yoga. We also collected nearly $4,000 from the 50/50 raffle. $1,800 was split amongst three lucky winners - congratulations to Pam Buchmueller, Keiko Tannenbaum and Ellen Silver. While final results from the event are still being tallied, we netted over $17,000 which will be used to directly support our school and improve the lives of our children.
Thanks to all of the hard work of the many volunteers who put this together and to all of the parents who attended, supported the event with a donation or sold raffle tickets. We would also like to thank the faculty for donating their time to the wonderful sign up parties for the students and local merchants for donations which helped to make this event such a success. Plans have already begun for the 2nd Annual Parents Night Out which we are confident will be even bigger and better!
