This year’s Miami Palmetto Senior High School PTSA’s 2015 Campaign for Excellence seeks to raise $15,000 to re-equip and modernize Palmetto High’s weight room with new equipment and weights so that it can upgrade its weight training and cross fit programs. The weight room is used by more than 1,200 students, including the PE and dance classes, and more than 40 school sports teams.
While the school is slated for a $30 million renovation, the strict parameters of the bond funding do not allow any of the renovation funds to be used to improve the weight room. One of the school’s priorities this year under the new principal, Victoria Dobbs, and the new Athletic Director, Steve Batten, is to make sure the weight room and weight training program offer the newest, safest and best quality equipment and resources available.
I accepted the honor and responsibility of being this year’s Honorary Fundraising Chair for the PTSA Campaign for Excellence because I know the importance of proper weight training to athletic and health development. I wish I was joking when I have said, “I think some of the weight room equipment at the high school was there when I was a student.” That’s how old and bad it really is!
While private school parents who pay separately for their child’s or children’s tuition also expect to be asked for donations, it may not occur to you that public schools need private and corporate financial support just as much and probably more.
Anna Hochkammer, Miami Palmetto Senior High PTSA President said, “We buy so many extras for the school that people assume the state pays for with your tax money. Everything from musical instruments and sheet music, to extra sets of books for classrooms so kids don’t have to carry heavy texts around, to large capital improvements such as a new 50-computer lab, a new sound system for the auditorium, and updated TV production equipment. It’s a very long list.”
The Village’s five public schools all have PTA/PTSAs that are registered 501(3)(c) non-profits, so donations are tax deductible. By using volunteer labor, every penny goes back directly back into the schools, so donations are a great investment in your child’s education, or just your community if your children are grown or go to school elsewhere.
I am humbly asking all my former teammates, alumni, residents, and anyone who cares or wants to help to make a donation to this worthy cause. Donations, which as I said are tax deductible, should be made payable to theMPSH PTSA and may be given to me at my office address or directly to the PTSA at Palmetto High School, 7460 SW 118th Street, Pinecrest, FL 33156.
