Cypress : College Fund-Raiser Brings Record Amount

The Americana and Community Awards fund-raiser brought in $72,000, which is $7,000 over the goal and the largest amount ever raised by the annual event for Cypress College, Jack Scott, the institution’s president, said.

“This dinner, which was held in February this year, is our largest single fund-raiser for the Cypress College Foundation,” Scott said. “The foundation is very important to our college because it raises money for things the state’s bare-bones budget simply doesn’t provide.”

Scott said the foundation’s money from the Americana Awards and other fund-raising events in 1987 will be used to buy new books and automation machines for the college library. He said college libraries have been among the worst casualties of four years of state budget cuts for the community colleges.

“Library books have no voice,” Scott said. “It’s pretty easy when you have to cut back on your library collection, but if you do this for any length of time, the quality of your education is going to erode.”

In previous years, the Cypress College Foundation has dedicated its proceeds to specific programs in need of additional funding, Scott said. “Last year we used the money for science, engineering and math equipment. The year before that we purchased computers for our computer labs. We pick a different project every year that we couldn’t fund with just the state money available to us,” he added.