Friends of Marblehead Schools gear up for fundraising push

MARBLEHEAD – The Friends of the Marblehead Public Schools are gearing up for their 20th anniversary and a major fundraising campaign that starts tonight.Returning school teachers and staff got a preview of the effort when they packed the Marblehead High auditorium Wednesday morning for their back to school meeting – and they gave it a standing ovation.Friends President Beezee Honan told the audience the Friends have raised $1 million in grants for special school projects in every academic area since they began in 1991 and in the next two years they plan to mount a special pledge campaign to raise $300,000, in addition to their regular fund-raising."We are here to support you and the amazing things you do in the classroom," Honan said.To describe their efforts the Friends have a special video presentation that will be shown this evening to the school parents who have agreed to host fundraising house parties for the pledge campaign – and at the parties as well. Honan introduced it Wednesday."I thought you deserved to see it first," she said.Created by Sue Baylow, creative director for a Boston advertising agency and a parent and Friends supporter, the video let Marblehead school people tell the Friends story in their own words.Student Alex Segil talked about "Bash the Trash," a program sponsored by a Friends grant that taught her and her classmates how to convert trash into musical instruments. Marblehead High chemistry teacher Deborah O’Reilly talked about a science program that a Friends grant got for her classes.George and Bill Shube enthused about one of the Friends’ most famous programs, the grant that brought the Rebel Shakespeare Company into being.Marblehead Veterans Middle School Principal Libby Moore said the Friends programs create an environment where "Kids are excited to come to school every day.""When teachers come to us with great ideas for the classroom we don’t have to tell them, ‘There’s no money," she said. "We say, ‘Write a grant application to the Friends and I’ll back you.’"