July 29, 2020

Hello Friends!

We are so excited to say that The Waldorf School of San Diego had its first-ever Virtual Community Gathering on Saturday, June 6th, at 6:30 PM. It was a huge success, with over 100 families participating! The intention was to bring our community together with love, joy, hope, and fun while raising the much-needed funds from a raffle & silent auction. And that’s exactly what we did! Never in our wildest dreams did we think this would turn out so fantastic. Ian Cuevas, Jessica Kraus, and I worked behind the scenes to support the amazing Cambria Berger, our event host. We were in the moment, along with all of you watching and loving every minute of it. 

I want to say thank you to all of you that made straight donations, sponsored the event, and participated in the Online Auction. We opened the auction Monday, June 1st, and it was supposed to close at 9 PM on Saturday, but we all know how that turned out! Whew. Of course, there were some unexpected technical difficulties, but thanks to those of you that encouraged a re-opening of the auction and a proper close. Also a huge Thank you to the support team at Greater Giving. They provide the software that we use for the online auction, and they were able to guide us back online for another two days of the auction. On Monday night, June 8th at 9 PM, was the close of the auction and boy was that exciting!! We were all watching and cheering in our own homes to the auction items’ winners, especially the coveted parking spots!. Thank you again for your support, everyone, and I hope you are enjoying your auction winnings! 

The mission of this virtual benefit was to raise money for the Tuition Relief Fund, and the total gross raised $114,470! Here’s the breakdown: 

Auction Income: $45,930

Straight Donations: $7,040

Sponsorships & Matching Donations: $61,500

We were looking for a way to reconnect our community through this unprecedented time while also providing an opportunity for those far and wide to support our Tuition Relief efforts. People were bidding that don’t even live in San Diego, so there was a silver lining to having our event online. I’m sure that next year we will figure out a way to keep part of the event online so we can reach farther into our community and continue to Stream the Waldorf Magic!

Yours in immense gratitude and on behalf of the Benefit Committee,

Liza Ferraro, Development Events Coordinator

619-318-8460 – lferraro@waldorfsandiego.org

Thank You Benefit Sponsors!