The Winter Benefit at Menlo Park Academy is an annual tradition and one of the school’s largest fundraisers each year. Since we can’t host our typical all-school, musical performance with fabulous auction items and raffles this year, we are taking our event to the virtual world.
Even with this change in venue and format, the event is just as important for the school. As one of our largest fundraising events of the year, the Winter Benefit helps to cover the gap between the base funding the school receives and the actual amount the school spends to educate each student. Your support is critical to this event’s success in helping us to cover this gap.
The 2020 Winter Benefit will feature an online auction that will be open from Sunday, December 13th at 6 p.m. through the event broadcast. The broadcast entertainment is scheduled for Saturday, December 19th, from 5-8 p.m. For the first time ever, both the auction and live event will take place virtually and you can participate from the comfort and safety of your home.
This year, you will be able to bid on auction items or donate from anywhere using a computer, tablet or smartphone. We ask that you share it far and wide on your social media and other platforms. We will have two separate bicycles (with helmets), an online baking class presented by King Arthur Flour, as well as some fun and interesting baskets with themes such as Arts & Crafts, Family Movie Night, Games, LEGO, and even a lottery tree.
This year we will have two big-ticket raffle items:
Tickets for these raffle items will be $20 each or 6 for $100.
Bidding, raffle tickets and donations will all take place on a unified platform that will be available on the MPA website.
Last year our community demonstrated how much they support our teachers during the Fund-A-Need portion of our benefit by donating more than $15,000 to this effort alone. This year, we will once again ask for your support of our amazingly talented and dedicated faculty members. With $18,000 budgeted for faculty tuition-reimbursement and $37,000 for stipends and bonuses, this year’s fund-a-need efforts will once again support our faculty members.
Did you know that Cleveland Chop is located in a building that was once occupied by Joseph & Feiss Co. on W. St. Clair Avenue before they moved into the location that is our current Menlo building? This downtown steakhouse has partnered with MPA this year to offer four amazing dinner dish options that families can order as their meal during the broadcast. All dinner orders are served family-style for up to four people.
Choose from four dinner options that each come with salad, cornbread, and creme brulee cheesecake for dessert. See auction site for full dinner details.
There are a number of different ways in which families and friends of MPA can take part in the 2020 Winter Benefit:
The MPA community is welcome to participate in any and all these ways if they are inclined. Thank you for your support of Menlo Park Academy’s mission, and we appreciate the generosity of your time, talent and treasure in helping make the 2020 Winter Benefit a success.
