Optimist Club Helps PaliHi Grads Pack Their Bags

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

As Palisades Charter High School graduates walk across the stage at Stadium by the Sea, accepting their diplomas and waving to family and friends, a world of possibility awaits them on the other side.

For more than 90 percent of the outgoing seniors, the first step into this new world will land them at a university—a two- or four-year college experience that will shape their minds and their sense of self.

Many will move away from home, some to nearby schools in the University of California or Cal State system, others to the far reaches of the East Coast or the South.

With the excitement of moving out and pursuing higher education comes some tough financial realities—the cost of tuition is steadily rising, and even students who earn scholarships to attend class still have to outfit their student housing with day-to-day essentials.

PaliHi serves a diverse population made up of students from more than 100 different zip codes, about 30 percent of whom receive financial assistance in the form of a free and reduced lunch program.

In lower-income households, college acceptances come with an unfortunate calculus—is the invaluable experience of living and learning independently worth the steep cost of furnishing a dorm room?

Thanks to a fundraiser headed by Pacific Palisades Optimist Club, that equation will be a little easier to solve for a group of this year’s college-bound grads, after PaliHi’s College Center awarded thousands of dollars in gift cards for the purchase of everything from notebooks to bed sheets and toiletries.

Optimist member Don Scott led the fundraising charge, working with the College Center to accept donations from dozens of Palisadians and then using the funds to purchase gift cards to Target and other stores to help students and their families cover the gap between tuition and daily essentials.

“We’ve been working with Optimists over the course of several months and came to determine that this is what we would like to do with their generous donations,” PaliHi counselor Diana Hurst told the Palisadian-Post.

She said the flexibility of gift cards made them the best way to lend a helping hand, given the diverse range of items that outgoing college students might need in order to be happy and healthy away from home.

Hurst praised the Optimist Club, noting that the gift card effort was in addition to the generous scholarships that Optimists present to PaliHi students each year: “This is just gravy on top of their scholarships … The Optimists are just fabulous.”

Fundraising from the school’s Booster Club contributed extra cards to the fund, allowing the “off to college” effort to reach even more students.

With finals behind them and diplomas in hand, this year’s graduating class is ready to take on the world.

Now they just need to pack their bags.