Pair of teachers at West Valley put their heads together, give school foundation fundraiser needed boost

There’s a lesson to be learned here.

West Valley teachers Jodee Cahalan and Mary-Pat King learned it the hard way.

Cahalan and King offered a suggestion for how the West Valley Education Foundation could improve the silent auction table at its annual fall fundraiser.

“That’s how we got the job,” Cahalan laughed.

The pair are an integral part of the annual Taste the Spirit fundraiser, which will hold its 11th annual event Nov. 3 at CenterPlace.

The foundation annually raises about $20,000, with funds going toward the 25 $1,000 scholarships it awards ever year. It also offers $7,500 in teacher classroom grants of up to $750 each.

“It’s a fun event,” Cahalan said. “It’s a wine tasting event and the wineries that are involved always put together some nice wine packages that go very fast every year. There is a buffet dinner, and afterward each table bids on dessert. Every table has an envelope on it and everyone contributes to the envelope and the one with the most cash in it gets its choice for dessert. Full cakes. Pies. It’s quite an assortment.”

There is also a live auction as well as the silent auction table Cahalan and King coordinate.

That table annually provides a great start to the evening. Attendees drop by the auction table to check out the offerings.

“Before we took over they had gone in different directions with the silent auction,” Cahalan said. “They had done small number of items one year and I think they left some people, and their money, out. And one year they went with a lot of items, and they didn’t raise as much per item as they probably should have.”

Pointing out those misjudgments got them the job, and their observations proved to be accurate.

They think they’ve hit on the right creative balance.

Beginning in August the pair has been actively soliciting donations from West Valley alumni and from various local businesses. As the donations roll in, the pair package them into attractive baskets of items that will be placed in the silent auction.

“We certainly enjoy doing it. Mary-Pat is the art teacher at the high school, and she has a lot of talent. I’ve been doing fundraisers for the school dance team even longer than the foundation has. In fact, the first few years they used her file system to help get them started,” said Cahalan, a social studies teacher.

Several nights per week Cahalan crosses the street from her house to King’s and heads to the basement, where they put their creative juices together and create the baskets of donations together.

“The fun part is that you get responses from some people every year,” Cahalan said. “You can really count on them. I tap my family for things every year. My son-in-law makes a West Valley Eagle cornhole game for us every year with some help from Rick Kuhl.

“They’ve proven to be very popular, and I’ve had people ask me where they can get one. I keep telling them that there is only one per year and if they want it they need to come to the dinner and get their bids in early.”

Part of the fun comes from new donations.

“I got to school the other day, and there was a donation from someone I have not seen since we graduated together,” Cahalan said. “She sent us six lovely jewelry items to include in the auction.

“The first year Mary-Pat and I did this we got a donation from a gal we went to school with who runs fishing excursions in Alaska. She sent us six cans of canned Alaska salmon – they were one of the most popular items we’ve ever had.”

Former students are regular donors, too.

“Remember Tyler Hobbs?” Cahalan asked. “He played football and basketball for West Valley and went on to play in college. He called me and said he was sending a bunch of things for us and said he trusted us to put them into a nice basket for him.”

Athletic director Jamie Nilles is famous for his personally-designed cribbage boards, and the West Valley wood shop makes a clock in the shape of Washington state.

Cahalan and King also put up a backyard barbecue dinner for a lucky bidder.

King annually constructs an elaborate birdhouse, sometimes in a Washington State University theme, sometimes in a Gonzaga University theme. Those houses stand five- or six-feet tall.

“Our goal is to raise $5,000 with our table,” Cahalan said. “We like to think of ourselves as the frosting on the cake – we’re not the part of the night that raises the most money. But we are a nice ice breaker for everyone, and we have a lot of fun with it.

“In fact, the only thing I can think of that would make it better would be if we got about 50 more people to attend.”