The Achieve Foundation’s 2015 Night of 100 Dinners — the organization’s largest annual fundraising event — will be on Saturday, March 7. A fun evening where community members host dinners in their homes for friends and neighbors — each of whom donates $50 to attend — the event helps bring the community together while raising money for the South Orange – Mapelwood public schools.
Achieve is currently looking for hosts for the Night of 100 Dinners. Last year’s event raised $75,000 from 54 parties with over 70 hosts, said event chair Lindsay Scott.
“Every year the event has grown and my feeling is there is no ceiling,” said Scott. “The idea of getting as many people involved across the two towns all going to parties on the same night is thrilling, and I think that this excitement is just plain contagious.”
Interested in hosting? Read more information at the end of this article.
Since it was founded in 1999, Achieve has invested $1.8 million dollars in the schools, which translates into roughly $200,000 each year to support the education of all South Orange & Maplewood students.
Achieve recently spearheaded the “Take a Seat” campaign to restore the Columbia High School auditorium. The campaign raised a total of $450,000 to add architectural details and technical upgrades to the historic auditorium. The restoration was unveiled at a special “Curtain Up” event in April.
This year’s primary goal is to raise money needed to sustain the district’s annual programs, which include grants to teachers and administrators, professional development and the Achieve Volunteer Tutor Program, which supplied 237 tutors, who worked with 286 tutees last year, said executive director Deborah Prinz. The foundation hopes to spend between $60,000-$80,000 on all grants this school year.
Achieve plans to raise $20,000-$40,000 to support initiatives in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). “We refer to this funding as “STEM+,” because it is also intended to cover creative uses of new technology and learning modalities in all subject areas,” said Prinz.
As Achieve’s STEM+ committee works closely with the school district to develop their plan for STEM education, the foundation hopes to stimulate the process by supporting innovative ideas and strategies to increase STEM+ content, delivery and access.
Goals include: purchasing new equipment for programs such as robotics and Computer Assisted Design, promoting supplemental professional development and outreach to families in creative problem solving with computer programming, and extending after school enrichment in STEM-related subjects to as many students as possible in grades K-12.
To learn more about STEM+, visit Achieve’s website.
But back to the dinner parties: Scott said that in 14 years, Achieve has not raised the donation amount for the Night of 100 dinners. “Between more parties and our very generous donors, we expect this 14th annual to be better than ever,” she said.
The parties can be whatever the host chooses, and people can co-host with friends. Last year, there were sit-down dinners for six to 86 guests; a children’s tea; a Mardi Gras party; wine tastings; cocktail parties, and a progressive dinner capped off by lots of dancing.
As fun as the over-the-top theme parties can be, Scott said prospective hosts should not feel compelled to come up with something creative. “It’s also nice to just have your friends or neighbors over for a wonderful meal knowing that the proceeds will go towards supporting our children and teachers in our public schools,” said said.
What’s involved in hosting? Hosts provide the location and the food and create a guest list. Achieve takes care of sending out and tracking invitations. It’s fun, easy, and rewarding.
Interested in hosting? Contact 100Dinners@achievefoundation.org.
