Point Loma Optimist Club is sponsoring Chefs on the Point, an inaugural, culinary fundraiser benefiting Dewey Elementary School on Sunday, Oct. 18 from 2 to 6 p.m. at Stone World Bistro & Gardens, 2816 Historic Decatur Road, No. 116.
Ticket cost is $150.
Guests will be welcomed with an iced oyster bar and white wines. Individual chef stations will be spaced throughout the venue. Local chefs will be featured at the event, which will offer the best in Baja-Med cuisine. Chefs will prepare a Baja-inspired plate which will be paired with a Baja/Valle Guadalupe wine.
The venue within Stone is in Building 12 and will be held outside as well under the big pine tree. Seating capacity is 200 to 250.
This top-rate culinary event will benefit Dewey Elementary, a Title 1 school in Point Loma.
Nearly 75 percent of Dewey students qualify for the free- or reduced- lunch program. They are primarily the children of young E6 and below military parents, who, being in the lower pay grades, lack extra money for education. Additionally, the Dewey student mix includes more special needs students since the military transfers the parents of these students to San Diego to be near a Navy Hospital.
Jim Seman, spokesperson for event sponsor Point Loma Optimists, said the fundraiser is for a worthy cause.
“You may not know anything about Dewey Elementary School even though you may drive by it every day,” said Seman, noting Dewey is in front of the Navy’s Gateway Housing complex on Rosecrans. “We have five elementary schools here on the Peninsula, and most have foundations that raise funds for educational programs, technologies and events. One of those schools raised over $230,000 just last year. Little Dewey raised $6,000 through their Parent Teacher Organization. These young military families are our neighbors, and we’d like to help them do better.” “The military sends the more severe special needs military dependents in concentration to San Diego because of its close proximity to Balboa Navy Hospital,” said Dewey Elementary principal Tanya McMillin. “Because of this, we have a higher number than usual of special needs students we serve, 13 percent rather than a typical 9-10 percent.”
All funds raised from Chefs on the Point will go toward the purchase of equipment for the new Dewey math and science lab. Dewey principal McMillin, a special ed instructor prior to becoming principal, noted that “science is one of the easier topics to make accessible for special needs students” being “fun, interesting and interactive.”
McMillin noted that, in order to offer any extras for its students, that Dewey must rely on “outside funding sources.” The principal said what she’d like to do is raise enough money to start a new Science/Math Lab.
“I have a team of nine that have volunteered to get this project off the ground, implemented and sustained,” McMillin said, adding, “Dewey would provide dedicated classroom space where all students would get at least one hands-on science activity/experiment per week in a lab environment, as well as being able to do hands-on math exploration. In order to provide this experience, we would need funding for supplies and equipment as well as minimal funding for someone to oversee the materials on a weekly basis.”
Event Reservation/Tickets can be found at http:/www.bit.ly/Baja-Med-Chef. Chefs on the Point
When: 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday. Oct. 18.
Where:?Stone World Bistro & Gardens, 2816 Historic Decatur Road, Liberty Station.
Info:?www.bit.ly/Baja-Med-Chef.