Help AM Winn School Recover After Theft

We are a group of parents, reaching out on behalf of AM Winn Elementary, a public Waldorf school, which primarily serves low-income students from Sacramento, CA. We need your help.

As you may have seen in the news, on June 30, 2024, $16,000 worth of fireworks were stolen from our storage container. As a result, we lost that inventory, plus the cost of repairing the storage damage. Unfortunately, insurance doesn’t cover theft. So instead of earning a profit, we are now simply hoping to break even from sales and donations.

This is a devastating loss for our school community, which relies heavily on this particular fundraiser. Every year, our principal along with dedicated parent volunteers (many of whom are also our classroom aides, teachers, and yard duty staff) bring out heavy-duty fans–which were also stolen–and take turns selling fireworks in a parking lot from 10am-10pm all week before July 4th. We do this because we love our kids, we love our school, and we deeply believe in the power of quality education for all.

The money we earn from fireworks typically support programs that are not funded by the district and that most of our families could not afford otherwise, such as sports. Our coaches are unpaid, big-hearted parent volunteers, but there are still costs for uniforms, transportation, snacks. The funds we raise enable us to purchase, among other things, generic uniforms that student athletes can borrow for free. Currently, at AM Winn, any student can play basketball, volleyball, soccer, and cross country without incurring any fees.

Other things that we hope to be able to continue funding with your support:

All year, every classroom at AM Winn participates in several other fundraising efforts. (There’s much more we’d like to provide our students, like a shade structure for our playgrounds!) We have some of the most passionate and talented teachers and community members selling chocolates, popcorn, snow cones, etc and creating crafts to sell at our weekly Friday Markets. We host jog-a-thons, litter-a-thons, we apply for grants, you name it…But selling fireworks is, by far, our most successful fundraiser, bringing in about $10-15K a year.

Without it, we simply cannot afford to offer the amazing programs the kids deserve. This is why even though many of us have never set a firework in our lives before, we’ve become the biggest firework enthusiasts, eagerly learning and sharing lessons about firework safety with neighbors.

We love our school and the thriving community we’ve built – we hope you will consider supporting us. Any amount will help.

We are grateful for all the love and support we’ve already received. Our community’s ability to rally in times of need give us hope.

To learn more about our school, visit the AM Winn Public Waldorf website

Sincerely,

AMW Community Guild, the parent/teacher organization at AM Winn Elementary