College View School hosts its 10th annual car wash to raise money for field trips
Volunteers wash cars during a fundraiser at College View School in Glendale on Tuesday, June 28, 2016. Money raised will be used for specialized programs for the school’s disabled students.
Wearing snorkeling gear and a colorful wig, Corky O’Rourke stood outside the entrance of College View School, where she is a teacher specialist, to ask passersby to get a car wash on Tuesday morning.
The school, which serves students with severe disabilities, hosted its 10th annual car wash to raise hundreds of dollars to offset costs associated with paying for specialized programs.
College View students, staff, as well as basketball players from Glendale High School and volleyball players from Crescenta Valley High School, hosed down and dried cars, whose owners could donate whatever they wanted.
Volunteer Azita Fatheree, who has a child at College View School, washed cars during the school’s annual car wash fundraiser in Glendale on Tuesday, June 28, 2016.
Jay Schwartz, the school’s principal, had already collected about $200, half of which came from a single donor, not long after the car wash began.
She expected the event would raise at least a few more hundred dollars that would help cover the cost of field trips for the upcoming school year.
Nearly 30 of College View’s 60 students use wheelchairs, and the cost to send those students on a field trip can add up quickly because only a handful of students in wheelchairs can travel inside a single bus.
Teacher specialist Corky O’Rourke tries to attract people with her colorful outfit and hand-made sign for the 10th annual car wash fundraiser at College View School in Glendale on Tuesday, June 28, 2016.
When the students go on field trips, College View staff hires about seven buses, Schwartz said, a cost that climbs up to $1,800.
Years ago, a teacher specialist named Cari Fike, who worked with students with impaired vision, suggested the idea to host a car wash to Schwartz.
After Fike passed away two years ago, the school honored her legacy by allocating all proceeds from that year’s car wash for tools to assist students with impaired vision.
No matter how much effort it takes to rally volunteers, parents and students, Schwartz said the event has become a predominant fundraiser.
“It’s one of those things that now we’ve done it, we can’t not do it,” Schwartz said, adding: “The kids love it.”
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
