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The Lynn Aase MUN Legacy Foundation

Tax deductible
Honor Lynn Aase by Enabling Students to Attend Conferences

Legendary HBHS MUN teacher Lynn Aase died in April 2021. To honor his legacy, alumni have established the Lynn Aase MUN Legacy Foundation, to help high school students travel to top MUN conferences no matter their financial circumstance. 

Mr. Aase not only built the top Model United National program in the country, but behind the scenes, he also personally helped Huntington Beach High School students struggling to pay costs. Please join us in making a tax-deductible contribution that will be used to send deserving low-income students to national or international conferences. Every gift is a show of support for the continued success of the program and a tribute to Mr. Aase. Our goal is to raise $50,000 by HBHS MUN’s 50th Anniversary in 2023 so that we can create an endowed fund that will be a lasting legacy. We appreciate your leadership and generosity.

There are many ways to contribute. 

Make out a personal check payable to the Lynn Aase MUN Legacy Foundation (put your email on it please) and mail it to our contact address below. 100 percent of your personal check will go to the Foundation fund without incurring third-party transaction fees. Your donation will be manually added to this page.
Lynn Aase MUN Legacy Foundation
c/o Townsend Public Affairs
1401 Dove Street, Suite 330
Newport Beach CA 92660

Use our Go Fund Me link to make a donation via credit or debit card. Go Fund Me securely encrypts and handles your transactions; however, GFM subtracts a small transaction-processing fee.

Add us to the autopay list of your bank account, as you would pay a utility or credit card bill. You can arrange to make donations in scheduled increments that are affordable and convenient to you. For bank routing information on how to include us on your bank’s autopay system, please contact us. Your donation will be manually added to this page.

Include the Lynn Aase MUN Legacy Foundation in your personal will or estate. 

All donors will receive a receipt and acknowledgement of our nonprofit status sent to the email provided. For more information about the Aase Fund, see our website . Please share this campaign. Thank you for your support. 

Supporting Gifts
Aase’s All Stars—$500

Economic and Social Council—$250

General Assembly—$100

$50 for the 50th—$50

Dollars for Diplomats—$25

Major Gifts
Permanent Members of the Security Council—$2,500

Security Council—$1,000

Lead Gifts

Secretary General—$10,000

Deputy Secretary General—$5,000

Aase’s Angels
Donation of time and in-kind contributions. 
If you would like to volunteer your  time or services, please contact us at [email redacted].


How the Legend Began

It's been almost 50 years since Lynn Aase started a Model United Nations program at a So Cal high school known more for surfing than academics and brashly took its first cohort across the country to compete at the Harvard MUN conference. From the beginning Aase had big plans. He saw MUN as a way to transform honors academics into competitive sport. And he intended to have his team to play in the big leagues.

 

Aase started out a promising young pitcher who signed with the Chicago White Sox in 1956, but an injury ended that career after just one year. He turned to teaching history and coaching baseball, first at a high school in Brea, California, and then in 1971 at Huntington Beach High School. Looking for ways to spice up his teaching, Aase checked out an MUN conference held at Cal State Fullerton. When he saw how intensely young people vied to solve world problems—and to win the gavels handed out to top delegates—he made two decisions: he would start an MUN program at HBHS, and he would coach it so that his team took home more gavels than any other school.

At most public schools, MUN is taught as an after-school club. But Aase somehow convinced his new principal to tackle MUN by diving whole-hog into the nation’s largest conference: Harvard. That first year in Boston, the HBHS team took home no gavels, but the valuable lessons learned there led to a string of successes at California conferences. A new course dedicated to MUN was soon launched, followed by a summer preparatory program. Under Aase’s coaching, HBHS began sweeping awards at conferences throughout the state, the nation, and the world

 

Aase's Commitment

For 31 years, Lynn Aase introduced hundreds of students to dozens of complex global issues and conflicts. He motivated students to research, think, strategize, debate, and lead. Before each conference he set up a “roast” at which students mercilessly grilled their peers. With an infamous grin, he gloated over dominating awards ceremonies and challenged each class to uphold “The Legacy.” Aase was tough—but he instilled confidence and camaraderie. Students learned not only about the world, but also about themselves. And after going over logistics, Aase always took a moment to lower his voice and make an announcement that if someone could not afford the costs associated with a conference, to come see him later in private. Behind the scenes, he and other teachers discreetly pooled personal funds to help out. Aase’s generosity also extended to the extra time he put into the program—driving students to UCLA or UCI to research as well as traveling to multiple overnight conferences throughout the year.

Aase retired in 2004, leaving the program in the hands of teachers he mentored. HBHS’s reputation as a powerhouse in MUN continues 50 years later. When Lynn Aase died in April 2021, some of us lucky enough to have had him as a teacher paid tribute at his memorial service and online. Over and over, his students attributed later academic and professional success to experiences they had in the MUN program he started.

We want to make sure Aase’s legacy lives on. Please join us and also share our campaign with classmates and others who want to support excellence and equity in education. (If you are on on Facebook, like the Aase Legacy FB Page ) Personal outreach is essential to our campaign because there is no database of alumni—we are starting from scratch! But if Aase could do it, so can we.
 

Mission

The Lynn Aase MUN Legacy Foundation promotes excellence and equity in education by removing financial barriers to participation in top Model United Nations conferences, ensuring that the legacy of MUN teacher Lynn Aase lives on. Alumni established the foundation in honor of teacher Lynn Aase, who started the HBHS MUN program in the 1972—73 academic year and quickly led it to dominance. Aase challenged students, then empowered them. His legacy lives on in the accomplishments of the students he mentored. This foundation honors and extends that legacy.


Video: 50 Years of HBHS MUN in 90 seconds.
 



How Your Gift Helps

A gift of any size pays tribute to Lynn Aase, and most importantly, builds an endowed fund that pays expenses of students in need. For example, $25 pays for a dinner. $100 pays for a night’s hotel at an East Coast conference. $1,000 covers airfare to a conference in Europe. Every dollar donated helps students concentrate on preparing, instead of worrying about expenses.


FAQ 


"There are not many of us, who when we take our last breath, leave this world knowing that we changed even one person's life for the better. But Mr. Aase - he made the world a better place for hundreds, if not thousands, of young people. What he taught us changed the trajectory of our future. While I've had many professors, Mr. Aase continues to be the most influential teacher of my life. My little daughter would call him a super-hero."  For more tributes, visit facebook.com/AaseLegacy . 

Donations 

  • Rebecca Napier
    • $200 
    • 4 mos
  • Warren Duthie
    • $100 
    • 5 mos
  • Donald Osterlund
    • $500 
    • 5 mos
  • Townsend Public Affairs
    • $10,000 (Offline)
    • 7 mos
  • Gregory Nitzkowski
    • $500 
    • 8 mos

Organizer

Christopher Townsend
Organizer
Newport Beach, CA
Lynn Aase MUN Legacy Foundation
 
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.

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