Charm Walk fundraiser to support Cascade School District teachers

Those looking to register for the Charm Walk can scan the code to make a $20 donation to CEF’s Venmo. Bracelets can be picked up on the day of the event in Front Street Park.

COURTESY OF CASCADE EDUCATION FOUNDATION

LEAVENWORTH—Cascade Education Foundation (CEF) is hosting its second annual Charm Walk during the Autumn Leaf Festival, raising money to support teachers in Cascade School District (CSD).

Roughly 30 Leavenworth businesses will hand out unique bracelet charms to participants during the Charm Walk, which is scheduled for Sept. 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The fee to participate is $20, which includes the bracelet and collected charms. Proceeds will go towards CEF, which enhances student learning by awarding various grants to teachers in CSD.

CEF was founded after CSD’s double levy failed to pass in 1997, resulting in a devastation of funding for instructional support, programs such as athletics and arts, and more.

“It never occurred to me that the levy wouldn't pass,” said Karen Turner, CEF President and former teacher.

Turner recalled walking into work the morning after the failure and her principal calling an emergency meeting, which rarely occurred.      

“[The principal] said, ‘The levy failed. If you're planning something that you were expecting funding for, cancel it.’...I taught seventh grade math, and I wanted my kids to see a college campus…[They] said, if you're planning something like that, just cancel it right now. And I did. I had to. There was no funds for it,” said Turner.

A group of community members came together to find alternative funding in order to address the district’s wide range of needs, which were left unmet without local levy funding. In these efforts, it became clear that a longstanding education fund was necessary to ensure school programs received support as traditional funding methods fluctuated.

Now, nearly thirty years later, CEF still supports students and teachers by funding classroom enrichments, such as new equipment or field trips. CEF raises money through grants, donations, and fundraising events, such as the Charm Walk, to build up a fund each year. Then, teachers can submit a grant application to CEF for a specific need in their classroom.

“Where CEF comes in is, if I'm a teacher, and I'm thinking, wow, if I just had this [one thing], I could do so much more with them in this little time that I have this year…And then all of a sudden, you write a little grant, and you get that one thing, and it just changes your whole school year,” said CEF Board Member Anne Spratt.

The grant awards range in cost and size, from $340 for advanced math games for the first grade, to $10,000 worth of ski equipment for the P.E. and afterschool programs.

“That's the whole thing about education, is that it's about creating as many opportunities for students as you can so that they can make good, critical choices about what they're going to do,” said Spratt.

Additionally, CEF regularly awards grant funding to the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, which prepares students for college and careers. Through CEF, the AVID program is able to take students on field trips to college campuses, just as Turner had wanted to do in 1997.

“They take these kids and they show them what college looks like, what kids in college are doing, how they're behaving…They just realize that college is so much more than they understood,” said Turner.

Bracelets can be purchased online by scanning the QR code or on the day of the event. CEF will have a table in Front Street Park for bracelet purchase and pickup.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media