By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
            ALPINE — The Alpine Chamber of Commerce presented $4,800 to local schools at the Alpine Unified School District board meeting help Wednesday, Feb. 9. Six Alpine school principals received checks on behalf of their particular schools.
            The money was raised through fundraising for the chamber’s third annual Honorary Mayor contest. Honorary mayor candidates raised funds through campaign contributions from voters over a two month period. Voters were asked to contribute one dollar for each vote and were encouraged to vote as often as possible.
            The candidate who raised the most money won the seat as Alpine’s Honorary Mayor. This year that title went to Alice Villa. Alice is a Lion’s Club member and familiar face at Alpine Pharmacy.
            The honorary mayor serves as a community ambassador at events and helps to raise money for the Alpine Union School District. A school principal and an architect have previously served as honorary mayor.
            All of the money raised by the various candidates was pooled to benefit Alpine schools. The chamber’s education committee, headed by local businessman Jim Whitener, was responsible for distributing the money among institutions.
            The committee received “wish lists” from all the schools in Alpine, reviewed them, and then decided how to distribute the funds.
            Jim Whitener presented the school principals with checks at Wednesday’s meeting.
            Joan MacQueen Middle School principal Katy Woodward, who was herself a candidate running for honorary mayor, accepted $1,650 which will go to purchase six overhead projectors. Mac Queen teachers use overheads most of the teaching day.
            Alpine Elementary principal Rick Miller walked away with a check for $700 which will go to build a border around the sand area of the playground. Playworld Systems offers Border Timber systems to help structure and maintain a border.
            Cyril Reinicke, principal of Shadow Hills, also received $700 to help fund a new higher quality music playback system. The choral and instrumental program needs the new up-to-date musical and CD features.
            Boulder Oaks principal Deann Jeffreys was gifted with $1,000 which will go to purchase several new sports items. A new parachute, jump ropes, several different balls are among the items that the school hopes to purchase.
            Creekside principal Moana Miller was presented with $500 which will be added to an ongoing fundraising effort by the PTA to upgrade the school’s playground.
            The Mountain View and Alpine Community Day School principal Craig Champion received $300 from the Chamber for a  television/DVD combo.
            The home-school program will use the TV to watch education videos.
            The Chamber of Commerce Education Committee is a group of local business people who are dedicated to developing programs that allow the business community to take an active role in the education of children by contributing to special programs, special equipment, the arts, theaters and sports programs.
                       Click here to E-mail Christy Scott