Duneland Education Foundation Gala Recap

Gabrielle Rose, Sandscript Author

The Duneland School District is proud to announce that they successfully hosted the 9th Annual Education Gala. This Gala was hosted on April 22, 2022 at the Spa Special Events Center in Porter from 7-10 pm. They had live music from local band Jake and Jake as well.

Their mission is to support the students and teachers in Duneland Schools. They accomplish this in two major ways.  First, they offer a $10,000 Scholarship yearly.  This is done as a raffle. The winner is drawn out of a huge barrel at our annual Spring Gala. They also offer grants to educators who might want to do something educational and fun in their classrooms that is not funded by the school. To date, every school, including St. Pat’s, has teachers that have received a grant from the Duneland Education Foundation.

That Friday, they hosted the Annual Spring Gala.  It was a wonderful evening at the Spa Special Events Center in Porter.  During the VIP portion of the evening, guests were entertained by the CHS Jazz Band.  They were awesome. After that, they honored some amazing community leaders who were charter members of Duneland Education Foundation and have passed this year.   The leaders they honored are: Terry Hiestand, Janice Custer and Dan Keilman.  All three of these amazing people worked tirelessly to start and promote the DEF. The big moment had arrived, Jackie Ruge-Perkins, from Porter Bank, was the lucky lady who got to draw the winning $10,000 Scholarship ticket.  The winner was Bobbi Cory. She purchased the ticket to help pay for college or trade school for her son, Daniel. 

For the remainder of the night, the over one hundred guests enjoyed the band, Jake and Jake.