Lacey, WA, September 17, 2018 – Please join the North Thurston Education Foundation (NTEF) for our annual luncheon, It’s For the Kids, on Friday, October 12 at 11:30 a.m. at the Lacey Community Center.

There is no charge to attend the luncheon, but a $100 donation is encouraged. All donations raised at the luncheon will go toward the Foundation’s scholarship program, Student Assistance Grants and Learning Improvement Grants. In 2017, NTEF distributed close to $250,000.

Our keynote speaker is Deanna East. Deanna is a McKinney Vento Student Navigator and she is part of the team that works with North Thurston Public Schools’ homeless students (nearly 1,000) and families and she will highlight the struggles our homeless and low-income students face every day.

When Deanna East began her career with North Thurston Public Schools 13 years ago, she was shocked to discover that there were homeless students who attended our schools. After working in a few different schools, she joined the McKinney Vento team that works one-on-one with our district’s homeless students and their families to educate, mentor, and navigate them through programs that can assist with their needs and help them succeed in school.

Through her work, Deanna began advocating for the homeless and started three new programs at Timberline to ensure that all students had access to food, personal hygiene products, and an onsite small clothing bank.

She is an executive board member of the BOOST Scholarships and an active volunteer for many nonprofits that serve our local homeless population. For the last 11 years, Deanna has been the keynote speaker for the nonprofit entity Homeless Backpack Inc., and also was their site coordinator at Timberline for ten years. She was inspired to return to school to complete her Bachelor’s degree at Evergreen State College, which would help her research best practices in supporting our homeless and low-income students to be more successful in school and beyond.

There are sponsorship and volunteer opportunities available. For more information, please contact Mike Jones at (360) 790-6548 or [email protected]

 CLICK HERE TO BUY YOUR TICKET.

Thank you, sponsors!