Coronado residents and CUSD students Jack and Grace Elardo were honored this month at the January 18th City Council meeting and again at a CUSD School Board meeting on January 20th for reaching the impressive accomplishment of raising over $20,000 for the Coronado Schools Foundation (CSF). Mayor Bailey presented a proclamation honoring their recent milestone year of funds raised and proclaimed January 18th to be “Jack and Grace Day” in honor of their entrepreneur spirit, tenacity, and leadership to make a significant difference for CUSD schools and students.
“We would like to thank Coronado Schools Foundation for all the work they do to fund the programs that have made our school experiences so remarkable,” shared Jack at the City Council Meeting. “We knew we wanted to support the programs that would benefit every single student in Coronado and it has been a lot of fun coming up with new ideas to raise money for CSF.”
Jack, a CHS freshman, and Grace, who is in 8th grade at CMS, have been raising funds for Coronado’s public schools since 2017, when Jack was in 4th grade and Grace was in 3th grade at Village Elementary. The brother/sister philanthropic dynamic duo have created fundraisers at almost every major Coronado event, starting with “pop-up” stands of coffee and donuts. In 2019, they expanded their fundraising efforts to include a booth at Artisans Alley, hot chocolate sales at the Holiday Parade and a lemonade stand at the 4th of July parade. By 2019, just two years into their efforts, they had already reached the $10,000 mark.
Since then, they have added pop-up sales at Coronado’s Talent concessions and the Back to School Carnival, plus the addition of their ever-popular Yard Card Signs, which brought joy, welcome homes, and happy birthdays across Coronado during a pandemic lockdown in 2020. By December 2021, they had reached the milestone amount of over $20,000 raised for public schools in just five years!
“CSF Is so incredibly lucky to have such inspirational students raising funds for our programs,” said Michelle Gilmore, President & CEO of CSF. “To see students who value the STEM & Arts programs we provide so much that they take it into their own hands to raise funds to support them is the biggest vote of confidence we could ever ask for.”
More information can be found on their Facebook page at Jack & Grace’s Pop-Up Stand and visit csfkids.org for more information about CSF.
