The 2^nd Annual Funding Our Future, A Celebration of Excellence in Education was held on Friday, October 14^that Desert View High School.

Attended by over 135 guests, board members and Sunnyside faculty; all were treated to a very inspirational and motivating keynote address by Dr. Peter Likins, President Emeritus of the University of Arizona!  Valerie Heller, Sunnyside High School Academic Decathlon Coach and Irene Lopez, an elementary teacher at Drexel Elementary School provided the audience with insight into the critical importance of the foundation’s Excellence in Education Classroom and Teacher focused grants.

The 2^nd annual Funding Our Future breakfast was sponsored by Pima Federal Credit Union and they will be the major sponsor of the 3^rd annual Funding Our Future breakfast to be held in the Fall of 2012.  During the proceedings, 3 lucky students who are members of the Sunnyside High School Academic Decathlon Team, names were drawn and they were presented with brand new, fully loaded laptop computers generously donated by Brent Sandweiss! See Photos Here

CLICK HERE for Dr. Likins speech from 2^nd Annual Funding Our Future,  A Celebration of Excellence in Education.

Click here to purchase tickets»

Awards were made for 26 programs and projects including:

Mission Manor Elementary, field trip to Flandrau Planetarium
Los Ranchitos Elementary, books for reading challenge;
Esperanza Elementary, science fair materials;
Lauffer Middle School, materials for student created movie;
Apollo Middle School , transportation for field trip to University of Arizona museums;
Sunnyside High School, study materials and transportation for Academic Decathlon
Desert View and Sunnyside High School , Student Leadership Conference

Funding is made available from Sunnyside Foundation fundraising events, private, corporate and foundation grants. Corporate and Foundation grantors include: Altrusa, 7th grade philanthropy students of Congregation Or Chadash, Citibank, Diamond Foundation and Stocker Foundation

The Sunnyside Foundation is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to funding enhanced educational opportunities for children in the Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD). Our mission is to promote educational excellence by providing resources to support work, which enriches the education, development and well being of all Sunnyside Unified School District children. The Foundation was established in 1996 to provide the second largest district in Pima County with financial support for innovative classroom projects, extracurricular activities, and college scholarships. With forty-nine percent of the elementary students speaking Spanish as the primary language at home, the Foundation expanded in 2006 to fund much needed literacy programs. To ensure sustainability the Sunnyside Foundation is currently working to establish an endowment fund. Since its inception, the Sunnyside Foundation has provided more than $450,000 to augment the educational experience of SUSD students.

The Sunnyside Foundation received many requests from teachers for support of education programs that were not funded due to budget constraints. Persons interested in more information regarding these programs may contact Nicola Hartmann at nicola@sunnysidefoundation.org or 520.437.1163.

SUSD is comprised of 14 elementary, 5 middle and 2 high schools, serving more than 18,000 students. The District’s boundaries encompass 100 square miles from southern Tucson to Sahuarita, and from Interstate 19 to Wilmot Road . The District also serves part of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s San Xavier District . In SUSD, eighty-three percent of the students are considered economically disadvantaged, as defined by the standards of the national Free and Reduced Lunch program; of those students, seventy-four percent qualify for free meals. Ten percent of the districts students are homeless. Ninety-four percent are minorities and forty-nine percent of the elementary students are English language learners; Spanish is their primary language spoken at home.

Saturday, April 18, 2009, Gala Performance at 7:30 p.m. For tickets visit www.foxtucsontheatre.org or call 520.624.1515
For sponsorship information call 520.437.1163

The hilarious solo show that broke a Broadway comes to Tucson to split your sides and raise funds for education in our community!

Through its hysterical observations into contemporary feminism, masculine sensitivity and the erogenous zones, Defending the Caveman mines the common themes in relationships that go straight through the funny bone and into the heart. Caveman’s “outrageously funny and surprisingly sweet exploration of the gender gap
” -Chicago Sun Times has made it “a comic phenomenon

” -New York Times that has won the hearts of millions in more than 30 countries and is sure to win yours.

Defending the Caveman is recommended for adult audiences.

All proceeds benefit programs of the Sunnyside Unified School District Foundation.