Auction helps school provide quality education

This weekend’s Blooming Prairie Education Foundation silent and live auction will feature many individual auction item winners, but the big winner will be Blooming Prairie Public Schools because all funds raised by the foundation are made available to the school district.
Blooming Prairie Superintendent Chris Staloch said some of the things the foundation has funded over the years include: field trips, books for the elementary school library, guitars for the music program, a lot of STEM activities, Legos and Ozobots for the elementary students to work on programming and coding and a robotics program.
“The items, activities and the programming that we’ve been able to do through the funding of the Education Foundation is truly remarkable,” he said.
Specifically, Staloch said that the foundation’s fundraising has a two-fold impact on the Blooming Prairie community.
“One, the funding that they give us really has enhanced the educational opportunities for our kids and that’s what it should all come down to, doing what’s best for the kids. And I think this organization really puts kids at the forefront and really thinks about what we can do so kids in Blooming Prairie get a really quality education. We couldn’t be more pleased with the work that they do. They are definitely a great supporter of our kids and a great support of our staff.
“Two, I think the ed foundation really brings our community together to support education. They’ve really done a great job with that,” he said.
Staloch said community support is especially vital since funding is always a challenge.
“Their support goes a long way for us to make sure that our kids not only get programming so we can meet the standards, but we can go above and beyond. That’s really what we want to do. We want Blooming Prairie to provide the best possible education. I think we provide a high-quality education and their support is crucial in that,” he said.
The fact that the community invests so much in the education that the Blooming Prairie youth receive, he said, speaks volumes about their values.
“It speaks highly of them [the education foundation], but it also speaks highly of our community, how much they care about doing what’s best for our kids. And I think that’s what I’m most proud of as a superintendent is that our community really supports our kids and is willing to go above and beyond. They spend a lot of time, a lot of effort to make sure that they get the best possible education that they can,” Staloch said.
For all the work they put into supporting the Blooming Prairie school district, Staloch said he’s very grateful for everyone who’s involved in organizing the foundation’s auctions and everyone who has bought or will buy an auction item.
The Blooming Prairie Education Foundation’s silent auction will be held inside the Pizza Cellar from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 22, while the live auction will be outside under the big tent at The Cue Company from 4 to 11 p.m.