Friends Of Terra Nova Aquatics Programs?

California suffers one of the lowest number of dollars per student spent of any State in the Nation. The primary reason that we as a State still manage to provide the core education we do, is because funds that twenty years ago were used for extra-curricular programs, like sports, arts and music have been cut or eliminated completely from the school budgets. This was done to make sure that the emphasis on the core “3 R’s” was maintained, but did not take into account the value of the social and spiritual development that sports, arts and music provide.  
 

High Schools all over California have been forced to either eliminate many of these programs, or go to the public for financial support so that these programs may be maintained.
 

Here at Terra Nova, our Water Polo program exists only through donations and fundraising, while our other aquatics programs need outside financial support to maintain the existing programs. This year our Terra Nova Athletics Department started out with a $27,000.00 deficit overall. To continue the existing programs, that money must be raised through private and corporate donations.
 

Our sole purpose is to raise funds for Terra Nova Aquatics Programs, and to establish a long term “asset replacement and maintenance fund” for the Terra Nova High School aquatics facilities, including the swimming pool and associated equipment. Everyone involved in FOTNAP is a volunteer, and the Corporate charter forbids that any salaries be paid to any individuals that are either board members or Officers of the corporation.
 

Many of the larger corporations will not donate to individual entities, but only to recognized and regulated non-profit corporations. Recognizing that many of the needs for the Aquatics programs, including core maintenance like re-plastering and painting the pool are not in any school budget, and that to provide a long term, stable financial support for Aquatics, we needed to have an approved means of raising funds – thus “Friends of Terra Nova Aquatics Programs” was born. Organized as an official 501(3)c California Corporation, “FOTNAP” provides a means for us to ask for contributions and donations from major Corporations, and to request grants from various funding agencies.
 

We are a collection of Terra Nova parents and Pacifica business people committed to seeing that Pacifica provides the necessary programs and facilities to nourish and encourage Pacifica youth with an alternative sports program, that encourage self-discipline, team interaction, and takes advantage of the aquatics environment in which we live.
 

Recognizing that this is our first year in existence, we are setting an aggressive but realizable goal of raising $20,000 for the Terra Nova Aquatics program. We hope to increase this amount every year by at least 20%, and we hope to start a fund for a new pool that would allow us to replace the pool within the next 5 years.