Happy New Year!  We thank you for your continued support of the Walton High School Foundation and our Walton Community.  This fall proved to be a start to a very successful school year, and we look forward to all that Spring will bring.  Through your support, the Foundation is able to support full and part-time teachers to aid in classroom size reduction efforts.  This Spring, resources will be applied to help fund a part-time counselor.  In addition, this Fall, through your generous support, the Foundation  provided all faculty and staff a small holiday gift card and an additional gift card for all custodians, as a thank you for all of their hard work. 

As we look forward, we will kick off our Foundation Patron Drive. We encourage all Walton families to Commit to the W and be a part of making a difference.  If you have already given to the Foundation this school year (July 1 to now) we thank you for being an Early Bird Donor.  For our Early Bird Donors, if you would like to contribute during the active campaign we will gladly accept all donations, but also thank you for being a generous donor. 

We will conclude our campaign with our famous Foundation Auction, featuring wonderful Walton specific items, like parking spaces, custom class schedules and more.  Please keep an eye out for details that will be shared over the next coming months. 

We are grateful for the financial support, encouragement and endless volunteer hours that are directed towards the Foundation.  Together, we are making a difference.

The Foundation hired a commercial landscaping company to do a refresh on the campus grounds during the summer of 2021. We hope that the refreshed grounds warmly welcomes everyone back to campus starting the new school year. It will be an ongoing goal to help keep our grounds looking their best.

We are celebrating all of the funds raised and the work done by the Foundation throughout the 2021-21 school year with this End of Year Report:

• Fundraising: Thank you Walton Community for making the Foundation’s 2020-21 Fundraising Campaign a huge success! We raised $66,852 from the Spring Capital Campaign, $12,795 from the Auction and have raised $92,182 from our 2020-21 donations and other fundraisers thus far, for a total of $171,829.
  • This will enable us to hire extra teachers and support various facility projects next year like hand sanitizer station refills and landscaping beautification.
  • The Administration is planning to hire 1 full-time teacher, 2 half-time teachers, and 1 extended day teacher for the next school year (2021-22). They may also be able to add some additional extended day teachers as well. This will help reduce class sizes!
  • The Foundation has hired a commercial landscaping company to refresh the Walton High School’s campus landscaping over the summer. The goal is to have the campus looking great to embrace everyone for the new school year this fall.
  • The Foundation’s 2020-21 Fundraising Campaign includes all donations received from July 1st, 2020 through June 30, 2021. Because the bulk of our budget goes to hire extra teachers, most of what we raise during the current school year is applied to the following school year.
• Spring Capital Campaign: Thank you John Seckman and Soogi Hong for creating and managing the promotional materials and efforts for the Spring Capital Campaign that raised $66,852 funds for Walton.
• Auction: Thank you Crissy Marino & Bonnie Hardage for organizing the Foundation Auction that raised $12,795 for Walton.
• Teacher Grants: Thank you Susan Leingang for soliciting and fulfilling teacher grants that were funded by the Publix & Kroger Rewards fundraiser.
• Bike Rack: Thank you Mara Jacobson and Katherine Isakson for purchasing and designing the plaque for the new bike rack installed this year.
• Hand Sanitizer Refills: Thank you Caroline Whaley for ensuring that the hand sanitizer stations throughout the building were refilled.
• Campus Tours: Thank you Neysa Lee for fulfilling campus tour requests by sharing photos of the school and briefing parents over the phone and through zoom calls this year since physical tours were not allowed due to pandemic restrictions.
• Magnets: Thank you Carol Sicard for organizing the distribution of car magnets to our donors throughout the year. Thank you Student Leadership Council for delivering many of the car magnets this year.
• Mailbox Bows: Thank you Jen Brown & Claudia Floyd for making and organizing the distribution of the many mailbox bows that were used to paint the town blue and promote the Spring Capital Campaign. Thank you Student Leadership Council for delivering many of the mailbox bows this year.
• Study Skills Seminars: Thank you Sallie Winokur & Natalie Collins for organizing and providing the Study Skills Seminars at the beginning of the first and second semesters this year.
• Name a Classroom: Thank you Caroline Whaley & Donna Goldenberg for working with our $5,000+ donors to create a custom classroom name plaque.
• Celebrating Legacies: Thank you to Sally Winokur for researching and writing the series of articles celebrating the McLeod legacy. Thank you to Anthony Foti, a Walton teacher, for writing the article celebrating Bill Glass.
• Teacher Spotlight: Thank you to Sally Winokur for organizing students to write the articles to spotlight some of our new teachers this year. This was very helpful since we weren’t in the building to get to know them this year.
• Landscaping: Thank you Susan LeBlanc for organizing volunteer landscaping work sessions and to Caroline Whaley for contracting with a commercial landscaping company to refresh the campus’ landscaping over the summer.
• Donor Relations: Thank you Ashley Bhatia for organizing the donor lists to ensure that magnets and mailbox bows were distributed.
• Donations: Thank you Mara Jacobson for keeping track of the Foundation donations by serving as our Treasurer.
• Communications: Thank you Rhonda Knabb for communicating Foundation activities through our website, social media accounts and our 411 eblast.
• Student Leadership Council: Thank you Sallie Winokur, Brandy Roberts, Kat Wilson & Kathy Wisneski for working with the Student Leadership Council in this very difficult year. We appreciate you pouring into these students.
• Walton Green Team: Thank you Matt W. and Graham W. for starting the Walton Green Team this year. This group of students helps our environment by picking up trash at Walton HS and its feeder schools and area parks once a month.
• Staff Holiday Cheer: Thank you Walton PTSA for working with the Foundation to provide a stocking full of goodies to bring the Walton faculty and staff some much needed cheer at the end of the first semester.
• Corporate Matching: Thank you Mara Jacobson and Meredith Shoop for wrangling the many different systems to enable our donors to participate in Corporate Matching donations!
• Encouragement: Thank you Student Leadership Council for writing and delivering over 220 notes of encouragement to the residents and staff of Manor Care Nursing Home.
• CCYA Fundraiser: Thank you Student Leadership Council for organizing the Boo Bag Fundraiser that allowed parents/students to order Boo Bags of goodies to be delivered to their favorite teachers around Halloween, which provided encouragement to the teachers and raised $860 for the Center for Children & Young Adults’ (CCYA).
• MUST Ministries Food Drive: Thank you Student Leadership Council for organizing a food drive that provided needed food supplies to MUST Ministries.
• Walton Tips: Thank you Neysa Lee for writing a series of articles to introduce the Naviance platform to our students and parents. Also, thank you Betsy Alpert, from the Counseling Dept, for providing us several helpful articles to add to our Walton Tips list of resources.
• Back to School Lunch: Thank you Walton PTSA for working with the Foundation to provide the faculty and staff a back to school lunch during their prep week before school started.
• 2024 Freshmen Welcome Gift: Thank you Walton PTSA for working with the Foundation and the Student Leadership Council to provide the incoming 2024 freshmen the following welcome gift at the beginning of the year: Walton cup, pencil, stress ball, class of 2024 sticker, tips for success, and steps to hold a book in destiny instruction flyer.

Last, but not least, we thank Dr. Mallanda and the entire Walton faculty and staff for helping us do all that we do. We couldn’t do it without you!