"Nowhere but Up" is the theme of the fifth annual fundraiser for the Main Street Academy on Thursday.
The event will be hosted by Friends of Main Street Academy in Jonathan Barnett's airplane hanger at the Siloam Springs Municipal Airport, according to organizer Genia VanDyck. It will include a home-cooked meal, music by Rose Sparrow and Tim Stone and a live and silent auction.
Main Street Academy offers an alternative learning environment for students in the Siloam Springs High School. Every year, the school helps about 50 students graduate from high school, said VanDyck. The school is smaller and the education program can be tailored to fit each student's needs, even allowing accelerated education for those who have fallen behind, she said. It also supports students who have quit for any reason and helps them get back on track to graduating.
Friends of Main Street Academy, the school's Chamber of Commerce adopters group, supports students and teachers in several ways. Last year, the organization was able to give graduates more than $18,000 in scholarships for college or trade school on scholarship night.
"Whether they choose trade school or whether they choose college, we want to help them," she said. "We want to help them be proud and know the community does care and they do matter."
The adopters group has also bought more than 20 Chromebook computers with charging stations, and pays for students and teachers to go through the team-building rope course offered by the Soderquist Center for Leadership.
Friends of Main Street Academy was born five years ago out of need, VanDyck said. All of the other schools in the district had Chamber of Commerce Adopters except the academy, she said. The adopters established a board and have since grown to 19 community members. Oftentimes, Main Street Academy doesn't have much parent support, so the adopters step in to fill the gaps, she said.
The past two fundraisers each brought in $12,000 for Main Street Academy, and VanDyck hopes to top that number this year. The "Nowhere but Up" theme will be continued throughout the event, with old tourist decorations, and stewardess and captains hats.
Main Street Academy students will be decorating pumpkins as centerpieces for each table, which will be auctioned at the end of the night. Some of the decorations are very elaborate, she said. National Honor Society students and members of the high school's Family, Career and Community Leaders of America will also be helping serve during the evening.
In addition to the live and silent auctions at the event, a Facebook auction began on Monday on the Main Street Academy Adopters Online Auction Fundraiser page. The auction will end at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18.
Tickets to the event are $50 and can be purchased at the Chamber of Commerce office. Some sponsorship tables are also available.
General News on 10/16/2016