2019 DPIE Speakeasy Gala Celebrates Achievements and Looks to the Future

The Dublin Partners in Education annual celebration – Speakeasy Gala - successfully returned to the Shannon Community Center on October 5th 2019.  It was a night to acknowledge a year of successes for Dublin Partners in Education (DPIE) which had the ability to fund multiple initiatives and give back to ALL Dublin schools.  It was also an opportunity to thank a number of business partners and sponsors that made the evening possible.

The “speakeasy” theme was meant to set the tone of a light mood,  while mixing in a touch of elegance and many guests dressed to the Prohibition-era attire added to the overall vibe. Guests were greeted with a glass of Prosecco and were then able to investigate a myriad of silent auction items.  Throughout the night, new friendships were made and other relationships were rekindled.  One guest that made the trek from Southern California was former Superintendent Dr. Stephen Hanke who presided over DUSD for ten years. 

During the seated dinner, various dignitaries and DPIE sponsors were acknowledged.  Some of these included Amador Valley Industries, Fremont Bank, Dublin Ulferts Center, Kaiser Permanente and Dublin Toyota.  A key sponsor returning to support DPIE this year was Chevron USA.  Nathan Rearick utilized the opportunity to spotlight the "Fuel Your School Program (FYS)" which ran through October 2019, which was placed on the donorschoose.org platform.  FYS was an open invitation for educators in the Tri-Valley area and beyond, to submit classroom projects that could be funded through this mechanism.  As the sponsor, Chevron sat in the unique position to fund up to half a million dollars of projects based upon dedicated funds that have been reserved from historical fuel sales in the same time period.  While we await the final figures, the program has been a smashing success for scores of Dublin classroom teachers.

DPIE President, Sobia Qureshi, expressed her gratitude to the continued support of the Dublin community, to all of those present and in particular to the dedication of the DPIE Board of Directors (Linda Smith, Rameet Kohil, Bill Moy, Catherine Grier, Don Price and Sameer Hakim).  Subsequently, Superintendent Dr. David Marken expressed his thoughts on the unique opportunity to return to lead DUSD following his retirement and to the value of the district’s relationship with Dublin Partners in Education. 

The final highlights of the evening, was a live auction engineered by Keith Fox of Fox Fundraising.  Mr. Fox possesses the unique designation of Benefit Auction Specialist (BAS) which is a professional designation from a national association.  Secondly, adding to the evening experience of great sound, visual effects and music for dancing, was Vikram Kalyanaman of Digital Harmony Productions.  Vikram is a Dublin resident and parent to two students within the Dublin district and he lent his audio/video expertise to the entire evening. 

It was a night of fun, fundraising and one to remember.  It was a complete team effort, from the Gala Committee members, DPIE Staff, volunteers, to a collaboration with the City of Dublin and to the wonderful student volunteers that helped us to decorate Ambrose Hall earlier in the day.