Last night’s Coronado Schools Foundation Annual Connect-A-Thon finished with overwhelming success. The 100 Year Community Choir, under the direction of Brook Binns, provided a moving opening as the school district’s 100th anniversary was celebrated. Final totals from the event are still moving upward, but the foundation announced at the end of the production that the community donated a record-breaking $187,000 with donations still being made. Patty Cowan, CEO of CSF was obviously pleased with not only the success of the donations, but also the technical expertise of the live production.
“Our community came through for us again in a big way,” said Cowan. “We received donations from all over the world thanks to the live video production over cable TV and via the Internet. Abby Buckley, CSF Event Coordinator, did an amazing job in her first year with CSF on coordinating and managing the live TV show.”
The live video production was filmed from the Coronado High School Performing Arts Theatre in Coronado. For the third year in a row, the Connect-A-Thon was produced by students and for students in a project-based, experiential learning event that used a live telethon program as the foundation for that learning. The Quad featured the CHS Senior Food Court and fun activities for kids including airplane flying with CMS Into to Engineering Students, Crown City Robotics Robot, face painting with Laura Hill’s CHS art students, Producing Partner Martial Arts America ever popular board breaking, karaoke station and more, managed and run by a cadre of dedicated volunteers.
The broadcast was shown locally on CTV Channel 19 Time Warner Cable in Coronado. It was also shown live on the San Diego County Office of Education’s iTV cable channel 16 all across San Diego County. Other people watched the online live-streamed broadcast via the Internet. Jan and Lennie Clements, longtime supporters of CSF and our public schools, received the Annual Merchant of the Year Award, the first time this award had been given at the telethon.
Under the direction of Amy Steward and Tony Perri, student groups from the Coronado Middle School KCMS News Team and the Coronado High School CTV News Team produced, directed, and taped the show. Editing of all pre-taped acts was also performed by these teams. Principals and Assistant Principals from all schools were joined by CHS Seniors to host the event throughout the evening. The Cavanaugh’s were the lucky winners of the Emerald City surfboard.
With the school district facing an unprecedented $2.7 Million in budget cuts for next year, it was critical that people gave generously. All proceeds will benefit Coronado Unified School District students in the next school year. People who donated had their name included in the line of text crawling along the bottom of the screen all evening. For a donation of $300 or more donors received a limited edition “Proud to be an Islander” Yard Sign!
Visit the Coronado Schools Foundation website for more info: http://csfkids.org/
