Buena Vista Horace Mann PTA

PLEASE READ TO THE BOTTOM

Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School was the first Spanish-immersion school in San Francisco. It is an arts school in the heart of the Mission District, with a focus on building social justice leaders. It is 89% Latino, with a student mariachi band, world dance, fine arts, and a slew of community partnerships for science, creative writing, music, and theater.

It is also 75% socioeconomically disadvantaged, 15% special education, and 6% unhoused. It is the only public school in the United States to host a shelter onsite. Children sleep in our gym every night of the week.

Other public schools in San Francisco raise hundreds of thousands of dollars every year - even more than a million! - from their PTAs through family giving to provide "extras", including staff. Our families are not rolling like that: this year we have raised roughly $60,000 (thank god!) - barely enough to cover the part-time salaries of our dance teacher and art enrichment coordinator, as we've done for the past 17 years.

This year, we're taking a big risk - we're trying to bridge that gap by hosting our first-ever street festival. Most of it will be free, because free is what's accessible to our community, and at BVHM, community comes first. We will have live entertainment including salsa dancing, mariachi, Aztec dancers, and a DJ. We will have food and beverages (including cocktails!) and a Kids' Zone with a live mural project, giant bubbles, face-painting, and games. Best of all, we will have lucha libre matches - with luchadores all the way from Mexico - with kids able to play in the ring between matches. It's going to be a good time.

But the event has costs. We have to pay the luchadores (we WANT to pay the luchadores). We have to pay for PortaPotties. We have to pay for janitorial services. We were going to pay to rent tables and chairs but 25 tables cost MORE THAN $1,000 so we are crowd-sourcing them. We have to buy art supplies so the middle schoolers can make the signs. We have to make copies of our flyer. We are going to have to buy a lot of ice. There are a million incidentals, like stickers and wristbands and paper tablecloths and hot dog buns.

We do have partners (thank god for Calle 24 and the Mission Merchants Association and the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association!). We do have vendors making donations (thank god for Sports Basement and Grocery Outlet and Beez Kneez!). We still have costs we can't get around.

We don't want to break even on this festival. We want to MAKE A PROFIT so we can keep our arts programming, and we want it to kick ass so we can grow it every year and nurture these kids who deserve just as much as the kids who go to schools with bigger PTAs.

We are looking for three things:

1. Cold, hard cash through a donation to our PayPal Giving Fund (linked here). We are not joking when we say any amount matters. We function on small donations.

2. Sponsorships. If you run a business, or work for a business, that would like to advertise to our community of 600 families, plus (we hope) 500 attendees, please indicate that when you make a donation and/or use the email provided.

3. Attendees! Please put Saturday, April 26, 12-5 p.m. on your calendar, bring your friends and your kids (and your reusable cups!) to Valencia between 23rd and 24th, buy tickets to see lucha libre, buy food, buy a cocktail, and revel in the sunshine as you dance in the street. Like we said, it's going to be a goddamn good time.