Thank you does not come close to expressing the Mercer Island Schools Foundation Board’s gratitude for the outpouring of support received at our MISF Breakfast of Champions fundraiser. The atmosphere was electric inside the Mercer Island High School Gym as over 500 members of our community joined with our PTAs and businesses such as Boeing, John L. Scott, Dollar Development, the MI Chamber of Commerce, Starbucks, and Virginia Mason Medical Center to raise money to support the Mercer Island public schools. Over $420,000 was raised at the Breakfast of Champions.

A $2 million cut in state funding to the Mercer Island School District for next year, following substantial cuts in the previous three years, has made community funding imperative in order to provide our children with the quality education they deserve and our community expects. The most recent cuts translate to $500 per student in the Mercer Island School District. The money raised at the breakfast is a wonderful start to closing the funding gap that our district is experiencing. Additional opportunities for giving will be held at all five schools at Coffee and Conversations, May 11-18; check your local school for times. The community is encouraged to attend these events as well.

Mercer Island is a place that believes in public education, believes that our kids deserve the best education possible, and is committed to generating the additional funding required to give our youth the rich, engaging experience that will help them develop into successful contributors to their personal futures and the future of our society.

Thanks again to the fabulous show of support for our schools.

Mercer Island Schools Foundation Board

Denise Hopkins,

Co-President